Tesco
Immigrant Entrepreneurship
Report

Immigrant Entrepreneurship

Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr
CESifo Group Munich, 2016
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Analytical
  • Overview

Recommendation

Academics Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr shed some preliminary but much-needed light on the topic of immigration, particularly as it relates to those immigrants who start businesses in the United States. Their analysis tackles such issues as what employment prospects these immigrant entrepreneurs create for others and whether age at immigration influences entrepreneurial success. However, their report ends up raising more questions than it can answer with its data-based approach. Nonetheless, getAbstract suggests this ambitious study to officials, economists and entrepreneurs – both foreign- and native-born.

Take-Aways

  • Successful immigrant entrepreneurs include a number of Silicon Valley moguls. But this group is not representative of all immigrant entrepreneurs.
  • Although immigrant-founded firms are more likely to obtain venture capital funding, they don’t necessarily achieve more favorable outcomes than native-founded companies do.
  • Immigrant-led companies are also more challenged to generate employment growth, with not many of their businesses rising above the 100-employee mark.

About the Authors

Sari Pekkala Kerr is a senior research scientist at Wellesley College. William R. Kerr is a Harvard Business School professor.

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