Graduation Year
2019
Date of Submission
12-2018
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Economics
Reader 1
Heather Antecol
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2018 Alejandro Sandell-Gandara
OCLC Record Number
1090291549
Abstract
This paper investigates the effect of entrepreneurial spirit on immigrant entrepreneurship in the United States. Entrepreneurial spirit refers to attitudes and perceptions towards entrepreneurship, or general self-employment. I address the home country self-employment hypothesis and examine the effect of home country self-employment rates on immigrant self-employment outcomes. I find a negative effect of home country self-employment rates on immigrant self-employment rates and thus, reject the home country self-employment hypothesis. I argue that home country self-employment rates over-estimate entrepreneurial spirit because they are largely driven by the world’s poorest people who are less likely emigrate to the U.S. I address this issue by using immigrants’ home country’s Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI) as a measure of immigrant entrepreneurial spirit. I find that the GEI has a positive effect on immigrant self-employment rates, and provide evidence that entrepreneurial spirit has a positive effect on immigrant entrepreneurship in the U.S.
Recommended Citation
Sandell-Gandara, Alejandro, "Entrepreneurial Spirit and Immigrant Self-employment" (2019). CMC Senior Theses. 2055.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2055
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
