Working Paper: NBER ID: w1942
Authors: George J. Borjas
Abstract: Self-employment is an important aspect of the immigrant experience in the labor market. Self-employment rates for immigrants exceed 15 percent for some national groups. This paper addresses three related questions on the self-employment experience of immigrants. First, how do self-employment rates of immigrants compare to those of native-born men? Second, is there an "assimilation" effect on the self-employment propensity of immigrants? Finally, are the more recent waves of immigrants facing different self-employment opportunities than the earlier waves? Using the 1970 and 1980 U.S. Censuses, the analysis shows that indeed self-employment rates of immigrants exceed those of native-born men; that there is a strong, positive impact of assimilation on self-employment rates; and that more recent waves of immigrants are opting with increasing frequency for the self-employment option.
Keywords: self-employment; immigrants; assimilation; labor market; cohort analysis
JEL Codes: J61; J62; J68
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| immigration status (K37) | self-employment rates (J23) |
| years since immigration (K37) | self-employment rates (J23) |
| immigrant cohort (J11) | self-employment opportunities (J23) |
| longer residency in the U.S. (K37) | self-employment probabilities (J23) |
| cohort quality (L15) | assimilation effects (C92) |
| secular changes in labor market conditions (J29) | estimates of self-employment rates (J23) |