TY - JOUR
T1 - Entrepreneurship and immigrant wages in US labor markets
T2 - A multi-level approach
AU - Kesler, Christel
AU - Hout, Michael
N1 - Funding Information:
We presented an earlier version of this paper at the spring meeting of the ISA’s research committee on stratification and social mobility (RC28), Nijmegen, Netherlands, 12 May 2006. The Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at UC-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business provided financial support for our research through a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. We are grateful to the late John Freeman for his help and support. We acknowledge on-going support from the Berkeley Population Center through Grant No. R21HD056581 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funders.
PY - 2010/3
Y1 - 2010/3
N2 - Some immigrants to the United States arrive to find co-ethnic communities that are highly entrepreneurial, and many members of their own group among their prospective employers. Other immigrants settle in far less entrepreneurial communities and have few if any co-ethnics among prospective employers. We assess whether co-ethnic entrepreneurship improves immigrant employees' wages. Previous research has focused on a small number of the largest ethnic groups in the largest cities. We study immigrants in 490 ethnic communities across the United States. Controlling for ethnicity, metropolitan area, and key individual- and community-level characteristics, we find effects of co-ethnic entrepreneurship on immigrant employees' wages that vary substantially with the characteristics of entrepreneurs and employees. Overall, immigrant employees earn lower hourly wages in more entrepreneurial communities, but they earn higher wages where co-ethnic entrepreneurs are both numerous and economically successful. Low-skilled immigrant employees earn significantly less in highly entrepreneurial communities than they otherwise would.
AB - Some immigrants to the United States arrive to find co-ethnic communities that are highly entrepreneurial, and many members of their own group among their prospective employers. Other immigrants settle in far less entrepreneurial communities and have few if any co-ethnics among prospective employers. We assess whether co-ethnic entrepreneurship improves immigrant employees' wages. Previous research has focused on a small number of the largest ethnic groups in the largest cities. We study immigrants in 490 ethnic communities across the United States. Controlling for ethnicity, metropolitan area, and key individual- and community-level characteristics, we find effects of co-ethnic entrepreneurship on immigrant employees' wages that vary substantially with the characteristics of entrepreneurs and employees. Overall, immigrant employees earn lower hourly wages in more entrepreneurial communities, but they earn higher wages where co-ethnic entrepreneurs are both numerous and economically successful. Low-skilled immigrant employees earn significantly less in highly entrepreneurial communities than they otherwise would.
KW - Ethnic entrepreneurship
KW - Immigrant socioeconomic incorporation
KW - Wages
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2009.07.007
DO - 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2009.07.007
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:75149185357
SN - 0049-089X
VL - 39
SP - 187
EP - 201
JO - Social Science Research
JF - Social Science Research
IS - 2
ER -