Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Innovation in the U.S. High-Tech Sector

J. David Brown, John Earle, Mee Jung Kim () and Kyung Min Lee
Additional contact information
Mee Jung Kim: Sejong University

No 12190, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We estimate differences in innovation behavior between foreign versus U.S.-born entrepreneurs in high-tech industries. Our data come from the Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs, a random sample of firms with detailed information on owner characteristics and innovation activities. We find uniformly higher rates of innovation in immigrant-owned firms for 15 of 16 different innovation measures; the only exception is for copyright/trademark. The immigrant advantage holds for older firms as well as for recent start-ups and for every level of the entrepreneur's education. The size of the estimated immigrant-native differences in product and process innovation activities rises with detailed controls for demographic and human capital characteristics but falls for R&D and patenting. Controlling for finance, motivations, and industry reduces all coefficients, but for most measures and specifications immigrants are estimated to have a sizable advantage in innovation.

Keywords: innovation; entrepreneur; immigration; high-tech; patent (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J15 J60 J61 L26 O15 O30 O31 O32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2019-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent, nep-ino, nep-lab, nep-mig, nep-sbm, nep-tid and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published - published in: I. Ganguli, S. Kahn, M.MacGarvie (eds.), The Roles of Immigrants and Foreign Students in US Science, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship,Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020, 149-172.

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Related works:
Chapter: Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Innovation in the US High-Tech Sector (2019)
Working Paper: IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEURS AND INNOVATION IN THE U.S. HIGH-TECH SECTOR (2019)
Working Paper: Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Innovation in the U.S. High-Tech Sector (2019)
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