Immigration causes American businesses to fail and that is a good thing
Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy
ISSN: 2045-2101
Article publication date: 11 April 2016
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between immigration rates and business failure, where business failure is viewed as a proxy for the presence of entrepreneurship.
Design/methodology/approach
It employs a panel data approach to the USA, using the percentage of the population that is foreign born as the explanatory variable for the business failure rate ten years later.
Findings
The authors find the effect to be large, with a one standard deviation increase in the foreign born population corresponding to a 1.09 standard deviation increase in business failure rate, and the authors argue, entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
The effect the authors find is very large though perhaps also counterintuitive.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
JEL Classification — F22, L26, R11
The authors thank Colin O’Reilly, Alex Nowrasteh, and Benjamin Powell for their helpful comments.
Citation
Murphy, R.H. and Weber, R. (2016), "Immigration causes American businesses to fail and that is a good thing", Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 63-72. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEPP-01-2015-0002
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited