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- 2024
- Working Paper
Immigrant Entrepreneurship: New Estimates and a Research Agenda
By: Saheel Chodavadia, Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr and Louis Maiden
Immigrants contribute disproportionately to entrepreneurship in many countries, accounting for a quarter of new employer businesses in the US. We review recent research on the measurement of immigrant entrepreneurship, the traits of immigrant founders, their economic... View Details
- 2024
- Working Paper
Age at Immigrant Arrival and Career Mobility: Evidence from Vietnamese Refugee Migration and the Amerasian Homecoming Act
By: Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr and Kendall Smith
We study the long-run career mobility of young immigrants, mostly refugees, from Vietnam who moved to the United States during 1989-1995. This third and final migration wave of young Vietnamese immigrants was sparked by unexpected events that culminated in the... View Details
- September 2022
- Article
House Prices, Home Equity and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from U.S. Census Micro Data
By: Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda
During 1992-2007, house price growth is strongly correlated with local entrepreneurship. We show with Census Bureau data that most of this entry is related to construction and real estate; these entrants tend to be small and short-lived. Using a 1998 Texas reform that... View Details
- 2022
- Chapter
Immigration Policy Levers for U.S. Innovation and Startups
By: William R. Kerr and Sari Pekkala Kerr
Immigrants account for about a quarter of US invention and entrepreneurship despite a policy environment that is not well suited for these purposes. This chapter reviews the U.S. immigration policy environment that governs how skilled migrants move to America for... View Details
- 2022
- Working Paper
The Transformation of Self Employment
By: Innessa Colaiacovo, Margaret Dalton, Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr
Over the past half-century, while self-employment has consistently accounted for around one in ten of the United States workforce, its composition has changed. Since 1970, industries with high startup capital requirements have declined from 53% of self-employment to... View Details
- Spring 2021
- Article
Whose Job Is It Anyway? Co-Ethnic Hiring in New U.S. Ventures
By: Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr
We explore co-ethnic hiring among new ventures using U.S. administrative data. Co-ethnic hiring is ubiquitous among immigrant groups, averaging about 22.5% and ranging from <2% to >40%. Co-ethnic hiring grows with the size of the local ethnic workforce, greater... View Details
Keywords: Hiring; Job Creation; E-Verify; Immigration; Selection and Staffing; Ethnicity; Entrepreneurship
- 2021
- Working Paper
Whose Job Is It Anyway? Co-Ethnic Hiring in New U.S. Ventures
By: Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr
We explore co-ethnic hiring among new ventures using U.S. administrative data. Co-ethnic hiring is ubiquitous among immigrant groups, averaging about 22.5% and ranging from <2% to >40%. Co-ethnic hiring grows with the size of the local ethnic workforce, greater... View Details
Keywords: Hiring; Job Creation; E-Verify; Immigration; Selection and Staffing; Ethnicity; Entrepreneurship
- 2020
- Working Paper
Immigration Policy Levers for U.S. Innovation and Startups
By: William R. Kerr and Sari Pekkala Kerr
Immigrants account for about a quarter of U.S. invention and entrepreneurship despite a policy environment that is not well suited for these purposes. This chapter reviews the U.S. immigration policy environment that governs how skilled migrants move to America for... View Details
- 2020
- Article
Immigrant Entrepreneurship in America: Evidence from the Survey of Business Owners 2007 & 2012
By: Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr
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. Immigrant-owned firms tend to create fewer jobs than native-owned... View Details
- 2020
- Chapter
Immigrant Networking and Collaboration: Survey Evidence from CIC
By: Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr
Networking and the giving and receiving of advice outside of one's own firm are important features of entrepreneurship and innovation. We study how immigrants and natives utilize the potential networking opportunities provided by CIC, formerly known as the Cambridge... View Details
- Article
Risk Attitudes and Personality Traits of Entrepreneurs and Venture Team Members
By: Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr and Margaret Dalton
Personality distinctions between entrepreneurs, nonfounder CEOs/leaders, and inventor employees have received limited attention, especially in innovative settings where they are working together. We surveyed these groups, along with other employees of innovative firms,... View Details
- 2019
- Working Paper
Immigrant Networking and Collaboration: Survey Evidence from CIC
By: Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr
Networking and the giving and receiving of advice outside of one’s own firm are important features of entrepreneurship and innovation. We study how immigrants and natives utilize the potential networking opportunities provided by CIC, formerly known as the Cambridge... View Details
- July 2018
- Article
Global Collaborative Patents
By: Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr
We study the prevalence and traits of global collaborative patents for U.S. public companies, where the inventor team is located both within and outside of the United States. Collaborative patents are frequently observed when a corporation is entering into a new... View Details
- July 2018
- Article
Personality Traits of Entrepreneurs: A Review of Recent Literature
By: Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr and Tina Xu
We review the extensive literature since 2000 on the personality traits of entrepreneurs. We first consider baseline personality traits like the Big-5 model, self-efficacy and innovativeness, locus of control, and the need for achievement. We then consider risk... View Details
- 2017
- Chapter
Immigrant Entrepreneurship
By: William R. Kerr and Sari Pekkala Kerr
We examine immigrant entrepreneurship and the survival and growth of immigrant-founded businesses over time relative to native-founded companies. Our work quantifies immigrant contributions to new firm creation in a wide variety of fields and using multiple... View Details
- October 3, 2016
- Article
Immigrants Play a Disproportionate Role in American Entrepreneurship
By: Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr
This article summarizes recent research on how immigrants contribute to the formation of U.S. start-ups and the traits of the businesses founded. View Details
- 2016
- Working Paper
Immigrant Entrepreneurship
By: Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr
We examine immigrant entrepreneurship and the survival and growth of immigrant-founded businesses over time relative to native-founded companies. Our work quantifies immigrant contributions to new firm creation in a wide variety of fields using multiple definitions.... View Details
- July 2015
- Article
Skilled Immigration and the Employment Structures of U.S. Firms
By: Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr and William F. Lincoln
We study the impact of skilled immigrants on the employment structures of U.S. firms using matched employer-employee data. Unlike most previous work, we use the firm as the lens of analysis to account for a greater level of heterogeneity and the fact that many skilled... View Details
Keywords: Firms; Scientists; Engineers; Inventors; H-1B; Age; Employment; Immigration; United States
- Article
Entrepreneurship and Urban Growth: An Empirical Assessment with Historical Mines
By: Edward L. Glaeser, Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr
We study entrepreneurship and growth through the lens of U.S. cities. Initial entrepreneurship correlates strongly with urban employment growth, but endogeneity bedevils interpretation. Chinitz (1961) hypothesized that coal mines near cities led to specialization in... View Details
- 2015
- Chapter
Firms and the Economics of Skilled Immigration
By: Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr and William F. Lincoln
Firms play a central role in the selection, sponsorship, and employment of skilled immigrants entering the United States for work through programs like the H-1B visa. This role has not been widely recognized in the literature, and the data to better understand it have... View Details