Doctoral Dissertation Research: Migration, Social Mobility, and Self-Employment

这项研究直接为减少收入差距的政策提供信息。世界人口的80%以上生活在低收入和中等收入国家。这些地区的特点是高度的社会经济分层和低水平的内部和代际流动。尽管广泛的研究记录了分层模式，但很少有研究考虑到不同阶层工人的特定流动途径。著名经济学家加里·菲尔兹（Gary Fields, 2013）在他最近提交给联合国的报告中指出，2015年后发展政策的一个关键目标应该是确定“促进自雇者从一个部门毕业到另一个收入更高的就业形式的干预措施”。本文通过识别与个体经营者之间向上和向下的经济流动性相关的因素来响应这一呼吁。在用于解决收入差距的主要战略中，教育改革是一个重要的战略，但是，初步结果表明，向没有受过多少教育的个体经营者提供商业资本和信贷的政策可能具有最大的短期促进流动性的潜力。这项研究也有助于当代关于美国移民合并的辩论。通过记录墨西哥移民在其原籍社区中可用的经济流动途径，本研究将在原籍国更广泛的经济不平等模式下将经济整合过程置于背景下。如果不首先了解新来者的起源，就不可能真正理解和吸收他们。该项目调查了墨西哥这个高度不平等的国家中不同社会阶层的工人常用的两种流动途径——自营职业和国际移民。为此，Co-PI将1)收集具有全国代表性的2008-2012年墨西哥个体经营者面板数据集；2)分析了52个城市和工业社区的个体返乡农民工深度访谈，以及30个农村和农业社区的个体返乡农民工深度访谈；3)发展一种自我雇佣类型，识别边缘、临时和成功的企业；4)运用定量方法分析社会阶层和市场部门对个体经营者创业失败风险的影响。拟议的研究将解决两个相关的研究问题：第一，在高度分层的劳动力市场中，自营职业是一种流动途径吗？第二，美国的移民经历如何塑造了城市和农村输出社区的返乡务工移民的自营职业轨迹？

This research directly informs policies to reduce income disparities. More than 80% of the world's population live in low- to middle-income countries. These regions are characterized by a high degree of socioeconomic stratification and low levels of intra- and intergenerational mobility. Although extensive research documents patterns of stratification, few studies consider particular mobility pathways available to different classes of workers. As the noted economist, Gary Fields (2013), observed in his recent report to the United Nations, a critical aim of post-2015 development policies should be identifying "interventions to promote the graduation of the self-employed from one segment to another, higher-earning form of employment." This dissertation responds to that call by identifying factors associated with both upward and downward economic mobility among the self-employed. Of the major strategies used to address income disparities, educational reform is an important one, but, initial results suggest that policies that provide business capital and access to credit to self-employed workers with little schooling may have the greatest short-term potential to promote mobility. This research also contributes to contemporary debates about immigrant incorporation in the United States. By documenting economic mobility pathways available to Mexican immigrants in their origin communities, this study will contextualize the process of economic incorporation within broader patterns of economic inequality in sending countries. It is impossible to truly understand and incorporate new arrivals without first understanding their origins.This project investigates two mobility pathways--self-employment and international migration--commonly used by workers of varying social classes in Mexico, a highly unequal country. To do so, the Co-PI will 1) assemble a nationally representative panel dataset of self-employed Mexican workers in 2008-2012; 2) analyze 52 in-depth interviews that were conducted with self-employed return migrants in an urban and industrial community, and 30 interviews that were conducted with self-employed return migrants in a rural and agrarian community; 3) develop a typology of self-employment that identifies marginal, temporary, and successful businesses; and 4) use quantitative methods to analyze how social class and market sector affects the risk of business failure among all self-employed workers. The proposed research will address two related research questions: First, is self-employment a mobility pathway in highly stratified labor markets? Second, how does migration experience in the United States shape self-employment trajectories among returning labor migrants in urban and rural sending communities?