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
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Rights Information
© 2018 Alejandro Sandell-Gandara
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.