Study Finds that Immigrants are Twice as Likely to Start New Businesses

A new study published this week strengthens the body of research demonstrating the importance of immigration to the US economy. Professor Benjamin Jones of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and several colleagues designed a study to determine the contribution of Immigrants to economic growth and job creation.

Their findings:

1. Immigrants are quite entrepreneurial. Immigrants are almost twice as likely as native-born Americans to start a new business.

Business Insider: "The survey data, which also take into account older and more stable firms, found that 7.25% of immigrants were entrepreneurs, compared with about 4% of native-born individuals."

"In both these cases, said Jones, "the rate of founding businesses is 80% higher among the non-US-born than among the US-born."

2. Their firms also tend to be very creative. Their study determined that immigrant founded firms received more patents than those started by native-born Americans

3. The jobs created at these immigrant founded businesses are high quality positions.

Northwestern.edu: "You might think, immigrant firms have a lot of jobs, but are they good jobs? Are they good paying jobs? It turns out, if anything, the immigrant-founded firms pay somewhat higher wages than the native-founded firms."

4. Immigrants aren't taking American jobs; they create more than would exist without their contribution to the economy.

Jones concludes: "It seems like immigrants actually improve the economic outcomes for native-born workers.” — Ben Jones

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By: Don Lam & Curated Content