Immigrant entrepreneurship in America: Evidence from the survey of business owners 2007 & 2012

We study immigrant entrepreneurship in 2007 and 2012 using the Survey of Business Owners. First-generation immigrants create about 25% of new firms in America, but this share exceeds 40% in some states. Conditional on basic regression controls, immigrant-owned firms tend to create fewer jobs than native-owned firms, have comparable pay levels, offer fewer benefits, and engage more in international activities. Prominent tech clusters display quite pronounced shares of immigrant entrepreneurs. Our results suggest that most of the impact of immigrant high-tech entrepreneurship for tech centers happens through the quantity dimension: Silicon Valley and similar tech hubs attract many immigrant founders.

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