Mexican Entrepreneurship: A Comparison of Self-Employment in Mexico and the United States

Robert Fairlie and Christopher Woodruff

No 2039, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Nearly a quarter of Mexico's workforce is self employed. In the United States, however, rates of self employment among Mexican Americans are only 6 percent, about half the rate among non-Latino whites. Using data from the Mexican and U.S. population census, we show that neither industrial composition nor differences in the age and education of Mexican born populations residing in Mexico and the U.S. accounts for the differences in the self employment rates in the two countries. Within the United States, however, estimates indicate that low levels of education and the youth of Mexican immigrants residing in the United States account for roughly half of the Mexican immigrant/U.S. total difference in self-employment rates for men and the entire difference for women. We also find some suggestive evidence that for both men and women, Mexican immigrant self-employment rates may be higher for those who reside in the United States legally and are fluent in English, and for men, those who live in ethnic enclaves.

Keywords: Mexico; self-employment; entrepreneurship; Mexican-Americans (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 J23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 62 pages
Date: 2006-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-ent and nep-hrm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published - published in: G. Borjas (ed.), Mexican Immigration in the United States, NBER-C, 2007, 123-158

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Related works:
Chapter: Mexican Entrepreneurship: A Comparison of Self-Employment in Mexico and the United States (2007)
Working Paper: Mexican Entrepreneurship: A Comparison of Self-Employment in Mexico and the United States (2005)
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