Immigrant Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Job Creation

高技能移民企业家通过创办公司创造就业机会和促进创新，为美国经济做出贡献。我们目前对高技能企业家贡献的大部分理解都是基于流行的说法，因为现有的数据来源不允许识别科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域的创业公司。为了提供经验证据，该项目将创建新的数据库和新的方法，以系统和严格的方式定义高技能移民企业家。然后，该项目将研究移民在决定创办一家新公司和决定受雇于一家大公司时所面临的选择。除了决定创办一家公司之外，该项目还将研究与同类公司相比，限制高技能移民企业家创办的公司增长和扩张的潜在制约因素。该项目有助于了解由高技能移民创办的新公司对美国创新和就业增长的速度和方向的贡献，并为解决限制这些公司增长的政策提出建议。该项目创建了一个纵向数据平台，利用个人和公司的微观数据(包括纵向雇主？家庭动态（LEHD），纵向商业数据库（LBD），十年一次的人口普查和美国社区调查（ACS）。这项工作涵盖了很长的时间范围（1991-2011），包括最近的衰退和最初的恢复期。该项目涉及的具体研究问题包括：移民创办公司的数量、规模、地点和类型的趋势；这些公司创造的就业机会的数量和质量；引导移民创业的途径；以及新兴企业的创新模式。本项目构建的基于LEHD的移民企业家测度为本课题的后续研究提供了基础。

High-skilled immigrant entrepreneurs contribute to U.S. economy by starting companies that create jobs and promote innovation. Much of our current understanding of the contribution of highly skilled entrepreneurs is based on popular accounts as available data sources do not allow for the identification of entrepreneurial firms in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. To provide empirical evidence this project will create new databases and new methods that will define high-skilled immigrant entrepreneurs in a systematic and rigorous manner. The project will then examine the choices faced by immigrants when deciding to start a new firm versus the decision to be employed by a larger corporation. Beyond the decision to start a firm the project will examine potential constraints that limit the growth and expansion of firms started by high-skilled immigrant entrepreneurs when compared to similar firms. The project contributes an understanding of the contribution of new firms started by highly skilled immigrants to the pace and direction of U.S. innovation and employment growth and makes suggestions to address policies that constrain the growth of these firms. The project creates a longitudinal data platform to answer specific questions both at the person- and firm-level using micro-data on individuals and firms, including the Longitudinal Employer ? Household Dynamics (LEHD), Longitudinal Business Database (LBD), the Decennial Censuses and the American Community Surveys (ACS). The work covers a long time horizon (1991-2011), containing the most recent recession and initial recovery period. The specific research questions the project addresses include, the trends in the number, size, location and type of firms founded by immigrants; the number and quality of jobs created by those firms; the pathways leading immigrants into entrepreneurship; and, innovation patterns in the new start-ups. The LEHD based measures of immigrant entrepreneurs constructed under this project provide the basis for future research on this topic.