Rural entrepreneurship and migration

Abstract

Using data for U.S. rural counties we examine the how the age profile of migrants from 1990 to 2000 impacts business start-ups in 2000. Depending on the industry classification, we find that younger and older migrants tend to have the largest impacts on rural business start-ups. The impacts tend to be larger for older migrants than younger. This result, which is consistent with the findings of the meta analysis of Akgün et al. (2011), has strong policy implications: from an entrepreneurial perspective, the loss of younger adults is likely out-weighed by the “retirement migration” of older persons. Rural communities should not overlook the in-migration of people who are either pre-retirement age or retirees when pursuing entrepreneurship strategies.