Immigrant entrepreneurs,diasporas, and exports |
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Authors: | Massimiliano Bratti Luca De Benedictis Gianluca Santoni |
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Affiliation: | 1. DEMM, Università degli Studi di Milano Statale, Milan, Italy;2. DED, University of Macerata, Macerata, Italy;3. CEPII, Paris, France |
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Abstract: | This paper demonstrates the positive effect of immigrant entrepreneurs on manufacturing exports over and above that of diasporas. Using small-scale regional administrative data, our instrumental variable estimates of export gravity models imply that ceteris paribus, that is, holding constant the total number of immigrants, the expected protrade effect of a migrant becoming an entrepreneur amounts to an average increase of US$5,946 in the export flows toward her country of origin. Besides these dyadic effects, immigrant entrepreneurs unlike nonentrepreneurial immigrants raise a region's overall competitiveness and export flows toward other destinations as well. |
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Keywords: | exports gravity model immigrant entrepreneurs Italy |
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