Book-length study of black, Chinese, and Japanese self-employment in northern cities of the United States, 1880-1940, Self-employment is explained as a product of moral communities resulting from migration networks.

Ethnic Enterprise in America: Business and Welfare Among Chinese, Japanese and Blacks

We semiparametrically estimate average causal effects of different lengths of exposure to academic and vocational instruction in the Job Corps (JC) under the assumption that selection into different lengths is based on a rich set of observed covariates and time-invariant factors. We find that the estimated effects on future earnings increase in the length of exposure and that the marginal effects of additional instruction decrease with length of exposure. We also document differences in the estimated effects across demographic groups, which are particularly large between males and females. Finally, our results suggest an important lock-in effect in JC training.

https://faculty.smu.edu/millimet/classes/eco7377/papers/flores%20et%20al%202012.pdf

Estimating the Effects of Length of Exposure to Instruction in a Training Program: The Case of Job Corps

This paper presents an overview of various models of regional growth that have appeared in the literature in the last 40 years. It considers the past, and therefore supply-side models, such as the standard neoclassical, juxtaposed against essentially demand-side approaches such as the export-base and cumulative causation models (as integrated into the Kaldorian approach); before moving on to the ‘present’ and more recent versions of the neoclassical model involving spatial weights and ‘convergence clubs’, as well as new economic geography core–periphery models, and the ‘innovation systems’ approach. A key feature of the more recent literature is an attempt to explicitly include spatial factors into the model, and thus there is a renewed emphasis on agglomeration economies and spillovers. Discussing ‘present’ and ‘future’ approaches to regional growth overlaps with the current emphasis in the literature on the importance of more intangible factors such as the role of ‘knowledge’ and its influence on growth. Finally, there is a discussion of the greater emphasis that needs to be placed at the ‘micro-level’ when considering what drives growth, and thus factors such as inter alia firm heterogeneity, entrepreneurship and absorptive capacity.

/pdf/models-of-regional-growth-past-present-and-future-2hjzwl43fy.pdf

Models of regional growth: past, present and future

Industrial CO2 intensity, indigenous innovation and R&D spillovers in China’s provinces

Knowledge flows and the absorptive capacity of regions

Innovation and R&D spillover effects in Spanish regions: A spatial approach

Re-examining the migration–trade link using province data: An application of the generalized propensity score

This paper examines the immigrant’s decision to become self-employed. Personal characteristics and attitudes are crucial to this decision, but recent literature also highlights the importance of social networks as providers of information and financial support. To date, empirical research dealing with the network effect has considered self-employed migrants as a homogeneous group. In contrast, our paper examines the impact of the size and the composition of geographic concentration of co-nationals on the propensity to be self-employed among the foreign-born workers taking into account two possible choices: own-account workers and entrepreneurs. Using micro-level data of migrant workers in Spain over the period 2000–2009, the results show that networks affect positively the probability of becoming self-employed. However, they do not affect the likelihood of becoming an entrepreneur, which is determined by individual characteristics such as education and number of years of residence. Thus, our results suggest policies that enable immigrant assimilation can play a significant role in generating entrepreneurial activity.

Networks and self-employed migrants

The migration-trade link has been studied extensively since the mid nineties, finding a positive impact through different channels. Based on the generalized propensity score (GPS) methodology, we estimate a dose-response function, depicting a non-linear impact of immigration on exports using regional data for Spain and Italy. For both countries the elasticity of province exports to immigration from a given nationality is always positive. However, it is magnitude varies with the level of immigrants: increasing with less than 100 immigrants; decreasing between 100 and 1500; increasing again with more than 1500. In contrast to previous studies that use country-level data, we find no exhaustion point in the effectiveness of the immigration networks on regional exports.

Guadalupe Serrano-Domingo

Papers

Innovation and R&D spillover effects in Spanish regions: A spatial approach

Re-examining the migration–trade link using province data: An application of the generalized propensity score

Networks and self-employed migrants

Examining the non-linear relationship between migration and trade