Immigration Policy and Entrepreneurship

This paper analyses the impact of a change in Australia’s immigration policy, introduced inthe mid-1990s, on migrants’ probability of becoming entrepreneurs. The policy changeconsists of stricter entry requirements and restrictions to welfare entitlements. The resultsindicate that those who entered under more stringent conditions – the second cohort – havea higher probability to become self-employed, than those in the first cohort. We also findsignificant time and region effects. Contrary to some existing evidence, time spent inAustralia positively affects the probability to become self-employed. We discuss the intuitionsfor the results and their policy implications....