A recent study by economists William R. Kerr, Saheel A. Chodavadia, Sari Pekkala Kerr, and Louis J. Maiden, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, has revealed that immigrants play a crucial role in entrepreneurship and economic growth in many countries. The study found that immigrants make up a significant portion of new employer businesses in the United States, accounting for a quarter of them. Additionally, immigrants are overrepresented as founders in the high-tech industry, with immigrant founders leading the four most valuable private, venture-backed U.S. companies in 2022.
The research also showed that businesses are more likely to have patents if they are owned by immigrants, and that firms founded by immigrants are up to 4.5% more likely to create new technologies. These findings suggest that immigrant entrepreneurs have a strong link to innovation, economic growth, and labor adjustment, particularly in the high-tech sector. The study was conducted as a draft chapter for an upcoming volume on Migration and Innovation: A Research Agenda.
