Entrepreneurship among foreign immigrants in the los angeles and san francisco metropolitan regions

This paper examines the association between location and entrepreneurial activity among immigrants. Based on data of the 1980 Census of Population, it compares self-employment among foreign immigrants who arrived in the United States between 1970 and 1980 and lived in 1980 in the Los Angeles and San Francisco SCSAs. Most immigrant groups showed higher rates of self-employment in the Los Angeles metropolis. However, due to the dominance in Los Angeles of Mexicans with a low tendency to engage in entrepreneurial activities, the total rate of self-employment among immigrants was equal in both metropolitan regions. Businesses formed by immigrants in Los Angeles were more diversified than those in San Francisco. In Los Angeles, but not in San Francisco, self-employment was found to lead to higher incomes (relative to incomes of employees) for people in most groups of new immigrants.