Migration, Risk Attitudes, and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from a Representative Immigrant Survey

Catia Batista and Janis Umblijs ()
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Janis Umblijs: Institute for Social Research, Oslo

No 7781, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Do more risk loving migrants opt for self-employment? This is a question especially relevant for policymakers designing selective immigration policies in countries of destination. In order to provide a rigorous answer to it, we use a novel vignette-adjusted measure of risk preferences in the domain of work to investigate the link between risk aversion and entrepreneurship in migrant communities. Using a representative household survey of the migrant population in the Greater Dublin Area, we find a significant negative relationship between risk aversion and entrepreneurship. In addition, our results show that the use of vignettes improves the significance of the results, as they correct for differential item functioning (where respondents interpret the self-evaluation scale in different ways) between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, and corrects for variation in the use of self-evaluation scales between migrants from different countries of origin.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; risk aversion; migration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J01 J15 J61 L26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2013-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published - published in: IZA Journal of Migration, 2014, 3:17

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Related works:
Journal Article: Migration, risk attitudes, and entrepreneurship: evidence from a representative immigrant survey (2014)
Working Paper: Migration, Risk Attitudes, and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from a Representative Immigrant Survey (2014)
Working Paper: Migration, Risk Attitudes, and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from a Representative Immigrant Survey (2013)
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