New Perspectives on Immigrant Entrepreneurship in the U.S. Economy

• In Event: Minority and Immigrant Entrepreneurship

Abstract

This paper uses restricted-access data from the Survey of Business Owners and Annual Business Survey to generate new estimates on the presence of foreign-born business owners in the U.S., dating back to 2002. It then proposes and tests the notion that immigrant entrepreneurs have been an important input into local economic resiliency since 2000. Specifically, it examines whether and which immigrant-owned businesses performed better than their native-owned counterparts during economic downturns and whether these differential responses played an important role during subsequent recovery periods. This analysis informs the utility of attracting immigrants as a form of place-based policy in the U.S., particularly in areas otherwise experiencing population decline.

Author

• Parag Mahajan, University of Delaware
  Presenting Author