Objective. This study explores the entrepreneurial tendencies of Mexican immigrants in metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) on the U.S. side of the Mexican border vis‐à‐vis the U.S. interior.
Methods. Using 2000 Census data available in the 5% Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, we empirically analyze the self‐employment rates and earnings of Mexican immigrants residing in U.S. cities near Mexico versus those in nonborder MSAs.
Results. Our findings indicate that Mexican immigrants in MSAs along the U.S.‐Mexico border have significantly higher self‐employment rates (but lower earnings) than their counterparts in the rest of the United States and non‐Hispanic whites in border cities. Explanations for these findings include the existence of trade opportunities in U.S. border cities as well as intense labor market competition that crowds a greater share of immigrants into self‐employment.
Conclusion. Immigration reform that curtails the immigration flow from Mexico might hinder small business formation and economic development on the U.S. side of the Mexican border.
We use data from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, and the 2000 U.S. decennial census to analyze how occupational risk relates to the earnings of Hispanic immigrant men. Our findings indicate that those with limited English-language fluency received significantly higher compensating wages in unsafe jobs than their English-fluent counterparts. The larger occupational-risk premiums accrued by limited-Englishproficient (LEP) foreign-born Hispanic men also hold when further including U.S.-born Hispanic, non-Hispanic Black, and non-Hispanic White men in the sample. These findings are consistent with underlying differences in preferences toward wages versus safety between LEP and English-proficient workers and ⁄ or differences in coverage under formal workers' compensation programs, perhaps because undocumented workers (many of whom already faced hazardous conditions when migrating illegally to work in the United States) comprise a disproportionate share of the LEP. However, our data and methodologies do not allow us to determine whether these premiums adequately compensate the LEP for the occupational risk they undertake.
We utilize data from the 1990 1% Public Use Microdata Sample to analyze the earnings and occupational status of self-employed Mexican Americans in the ®ve major U.S.-Mexico border metropolitan statistical areas (Brownsville, El Paso, Laredo, and McAllen in Texas, and San Diego, California) relative to those in non-border cities. Our ®ndings suggest that selfemployed Mexican American men earned signi®cantly less in Texas-Mexico border cities than in other areas on average, while the earnings of selfemployed Mexican American women did not signi®cantly vary between border and non-border cities. We also ®nd evidence that these earnings differentials may be related to di¨erences in self-employment selection and occupational choice. As such,``across the board'' policies designed to foster self-employment may not have the desired e¨ect of boosting economic prosperity unless consideration is given to the socioeconomic and demographic composition of the region as well as to the speci®c occupational sector.
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