Effects of immigration on native entrepreneurship in the US: an analysis of self-employment over 1980–2018

Abstract

This paper examines the causal impact of immigration on entrepreneurship among US-born non-Hispanic whites in non-agricultural private sectors from 1980 to 2018. Using self-employment as a proxy for entrepreneurship and distinguishing between incorporated individuals and unincorporated self-employed workers, I find a sizable negative impact of immigration on native self-employment. Importantly, this effect is consistent across incorporated and unincorporated self-employment and remains robust across demographic groups based on gender, age, and education. Results are robust to the choice of controls and estimation methods.