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Dispersed or Concentrated? Urban Distributions of Ethnic Retail Entrepreneurs: the Late Nineteenth-Century USA

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  • Robert L. Boyd

    (Mississippi State University)

Abstract

Past research shows that ethnic minority groups’ self-employment opportunities tend to be spatially concentrated. Yet, such research has not fully investigated the extent to which the concentration of these opportunities differs among mainstream and non-mainstream ethnic groups. The present study fills this void, analyzing Census data on retail entrepreneurship in the late nineteenth-century USA. The findings show that ethnic groups’ retail enterprise opportunities decline precipitously across cities, often exponentially or in a manner resembling the Pareto curve. The results further indicate that the decline is particularly steep for blacks and for Southern, Central, and Eastern European immigrant groups. Overall, the evidence suggests that non-mainstream groups’ retail enterprise opportunities are concentrated into a relatively narrow segment of the urban-place distribution, casting doubt on assertions that such groups can realistically use self-employment to gain an economic foothold in a large society like the US.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert L. Boyd, 2020. "Dispersed or Concentrated? Urban Distributions of Ethnic Retail Entrepreneurs: the Late Nineteenth-Century USA," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 41-56, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:joimai:v:21:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s12134-019-00666-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s12134-019-00666-z
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Higgs, Robert, 1976. "Participation of blacks and immigrants in the American Merchant class, 1890-1910: Some demographic relations," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 153-164, April.
    2. Robert W. Fairlie & Alicia M. Robb, 2008. "Race and Entrepreneurial Success: Black-, Asian-, and White-Owned Businesses in the United States," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 026206281x, April.
    3. Bogan, Vicki & Darity Jr., William, 2008. "Culture and entrepreneurship? African American and immigrant self-employment in the United States," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1999-2019, October.
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