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Mexican Entrepreneurship: A Comparison of Self-Employment in Mexico and the United States

In: Mexican Immigration to the United States

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  • Robert W. Fairlie
  • Christopher Woodruff

Abstract

Nearly a quarter of Mexico's workforce is self employed. In the United States, however, rates of self employment among Mexican Americans are only 6 percent, about half the rate among non-Latino whites. Using data from the Mexican and U.S. population census, we show that neither industrial composition nor differences in the age and education of Mexican born populations residing in Mexico and the U.S. accounts for the differences in the self employment rates in the two countries. Within the United States, however, estimates indicate that low levels of education and the youth of Mexican immigrants residing in the United States account for roughly half of the Mexican immigrant/U.S. total difference in self-employment rates for men and the entire difference for women. We also find some suggestive evidence that for both men and women, Mexican immigrant self-employment rates may be higher for those who reside in the United States legally and are fluent in English, and for men, those who live in ethnic enclaves.
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Suggested Citation

  • Robert W. Fairlie & Christopher Woodruff, 2007. "Mexican Entrepreneurship: A Comparison of Self-Employment in Mexico and the United States," NBER Chapters, in: Mexican Immigration to the United States, pages 123-158, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberch:0100
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Saima Bashir & Tesfa Gebremedhin & Jerald Fletcher, 2011. "An Analysis of the Role of Self-Employment in the Economic Development of the Rural Northeastern United States," Working Papers Working Paper 2011-05, Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University.
    3. Magnus Lofstrom & Timothy Bates, 2009. "Latina entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 427-439, December.
    4. Magda Tsaneva & Pinar Mine Gunes, 2020. "The effect of violent crime on teenage pregnancy in Mexico," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 141-164, March.
    5. Peterson, Robert A. & Crittenden, Victoria L., 2020. "Exploring customer orientation as a marketing strategy of Mexican-American entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 139-148.
    6. Duleep, Harriet & Jaeger, David A. & Regets, Mark, 2012. "How Immigration May Affect U.S. Native Entrepreneurship: Theoretical Building Blocks and Preliminary Results," IZA Discussion Papers 6677, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Lynn E. Browne & Sol Carbonell & Prabal Chakrabarti & DeAnna Green & Yolanda Kodrzycki & Ana Patricia Munoz & Anna Steiger & Richard Walker & Bo Zhao, 2011. "Small businesses in Springfield, Massachusetts: a look at Latino entrepreneurship," Public and Community Affairs Discussion Papers 2011-2, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    8. Armando Mayo Castro & Beatriz Pérez Sánchez, 2018. "Floricultura en el sur mexiquense: rasgos del emprendedor que inciden en la capacidad empresarial de innovación," Revista de Investigación en Ciencias Contables y Administrativas, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Facultad de Contaduría y Ciencias Administrativas, vol. 4(1), pages 111-125, December.
    9. Fairlie Robert & Woodruff Christopher M., 2010. "Mexican-American Entrepreneurship," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-44, February.
    10. Chunbei Wang & Magnus Lofstrom, 2020. "September 11 and the Rise of Necessity Self-Employment Among Mexican Immigrants," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 46(1), pages 5-33, January.
    11. Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina & Borra, Cristina & Wang, Chunbei, 2021. "Asian Discrimination in the Coronavirus Era: Implications for Business Formation and Survival," IZA Discussion Papers 14182, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Rachel S. Shinnar & Melissa S. Cardon & Micki Eisenman & Virginia Solis Zuiker & Myung-Soo Lee, 2009. "Immigrant And Us-Born Mexican-Owned Businesses: Motivations And Management," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 14(03), pages 273-295.
    13. Andersson, Henrik, 2018. "Ethnic Enclaves, Self-Employment and the Economic Performance of Refugees," Working Paper Series 2018:7, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    14. Armando Mayo Castro & Beatriz Pérez Sánchez, 2018. "Floricultura en el sur mexiquense: rasgos del emprendedor que inciden en la capacidad empresarial de innovación," Revista de Investigación en Ciencias Contables y Administrativas, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Facultad de Contaduría y Ciencias Administrativas, vol. 4(1), pages 111-125, December.

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    JEL classification:

    • F2 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business
    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor

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