Abstract
This paper examines self-employment across industries and states in the U.S. It attempts to determine whether self-employment is due more to pull or push factors and whether one or the other model fits some industries better or fits some states better. The 1990 Public Use Microdata Samples from the U.S. Census Bureau are used in the empirical analysis. It is found that self-employment rates differ considerably across ethnic groups, and that the rate of self-employment tends to be higher for immigrants. This paper also finds that increasing urbanization tends to reduce self-employment rates while the shift from manufacturing to service industries tends to increase self-employment rates.
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The authors acknowledge the useful comments from participants at a seminar at the University of Göttingen and the Forty-Seventh International Atlantic Economic Conference in Vienna, Austria, March 16–23, 1999. The authors also acknowledge the research assistance of Andrea Douglass and Michelle Lunn.
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Lunn, J., Steen, T.P. An investigation into the effects of ethnicity and immigration on self-employment. International Advances in Economic Research 6, 498–519 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02294968
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02294968