Out of sight, out of mind: Migration, entrepreneurship and social capital

Wahba, Jackline; Zénou, Yves

doi:10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2012.04.007

Cited by 220 publications

(240 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…They find that returnees are more likely than non-migrants to be self-employed. Finally, Wahba and Zenou (2012) focus on the channels through which migration influences entrepreneurship. They distinguish between the role played by overseas savings and experience and the trade-off implied by the loss of social networks in the sending areas.…”

Section: Background and Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The standard approach consists of estimating a specification where the self-employment choice (henceforth SE) is a function of a set of standard covariates and an indicator of whether the individual is a return migrant or non-migrant. By acknowledging the existence of endogeneity/simultaneity between the employment and migration decisions, several studies have employed a bivariate Probit specification to estimate the parameters of interest (see e.g., Wahba and Zenou, 2012;Démurger and Xu, 2011 The type of household where individuals live is likely to be co-determined with the self-employment choice, which raises concerns of potential endogeneity between the variables of interest. Accordingly, this leads us to explore our research question using the following model (subscripts for the observational units are suppressed):…”

Section: Empirical Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Entrepreneurship of the Left-Behind

Giulietti

Wahba

Zimmermann

2013

Research in Labor Economics

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. www.econstor.eu The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E SIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. While there is evidence that return migration promotes entrepreneurship and selfemployment of those who migrated, previous studies have not focused on whether migration provides the same benefits to individuals who did not migrate. Using a unique dataset that provides information on both current and return migrants in rural China (RUMiC), we investigate the impact of migration on entrepreneurship among individuals with no migration experience. We explore the self-employment choices of individuals who live in households with return migrants and individuals who live in households that have migrants currently in the city, comparing them with individuals living in non-migrant households. Our methodology allows us to control for the potential endogeneity between the migration and self-employment decisions. The results show that return migration promotes self-employment among household members that have not migrated. However, left-behind individuals are less likely to be self-employed when compared to those living in non-migrant households.JEL Classification: J23, J61, O15

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Section: Background and Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Empirical Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

Entrepreneurship of the Left-Behind

Giulietti

Wahba

Zimmermann

2013

Research in Labor Economics

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“…Migrants' savings and remittance behavior while abroad is shown to be an important avenue for understanding their occupational choice when they return home, particularly their choice of becoming either self-employed or an entrepreneur [4]. Studies using data from Albania, Egypt, Moldova, Pakistan, Tunisia, and Turkey have found that migration is a way to overcome capital market imperfections that result in borrowing constraints.…”

Section: Discussion Of Pros and Cons Higher Returns To Returningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…People who migrate have limited contacts in their home country while they are away, which could weaken their relationships with family and friends and acquaintances. These contacts are one of the key means of gaining information about the labor market on return and also play an important role in entrepreneurial activity [4].…”

Section: Occupational Inactivity As a Choicementioning

confidence: 99%

Occupational choice of return migrants

Piracha¹

2015

izawol

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“…However, there are significant costs to moving from one community to another. Therefore migration generates a deep impact on social capital of individuals, affecting, for instance, their propensity to become entrepreneurs [Wahba and Zenou, 2012].…”

Section: Social Capital As a Policy Resourcementioning

confidence: 99%

Social Capital, Institutions and Policymaking

Savioli

Patuelli

2016

SSRN Journal

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Economic processes, consisting of interactions between human beings, exploit the social capital of persons endowed with specific culture and identities. The role of institutions and policy makers is to build positive social capital and exploit it to reach their objectives. However, social capital is elusive and has several dimensions by which to interpret its multifaceted functions in economics and society. We cannot forget, furthermore, that social capital sometimes is undesirable for society, for instance when used for unethical uses. Even so, it is widely accepted that social capital has stable and positive effects.JEL classification: Z13, B52, D78

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Out of sight, out of mind: Migration, entrepreneurship and social capital

Cited by 220 publications

References 24 publications

Entrepreneurship of the Left-Behind

Entrepreneurship of the Left-Behind

Occupational choice of return migrants

Social Capital, Institutions and Policymaking

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