Year: 2024
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Immigrants are highly entrepreneurial. But, what is the broader relationship between high-skilled immigration and regional entrepreneurship activity beyond the ventures that immigrants establish themselves? Using administrative data on newly awarded H-1B visas in the United States, we document a positive relationship between high-skilled immigration and regional entrepreneurship. A doubling of immigrants to a metropolitan statistical area is followed by a 6% increase in entrepreneurship within three years. In contrast, continuing H-1Bs and the arrival of unskilled immigrants (H-2B visas) do not increase regional entrepreneurship. Focusing on Indian immigrants (representing about 70% of all H-1B visas), we find the effect is stronger in metropolitan statistical areas with a larger local Indian population, but not other nationalities, suggesting that presence of conationals facilitates the relationship between high-skilled immigration and regional entrepreneurship. We present this and other evidence as consistent with a knowledge transfer mechanism.
Authors: Inara S. Tareque, Jorge Guzman, Dan Wang
Institutions: Columbia University, National Bureau of Economic Research
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Funder: Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
OpenAlex ID: W4402258649