Clusters in foreign-born vs. native self-employment in Europe: do we look alike?

Abstract

In this paper, we analyse the existence of clusters in self-employment rates, segregating by place of birth, i.e. native vs foreign-born, in a group of 17 European countries. The analysis suggests that natives behave differently in peripheral and core countries, whereas their foreign-born self-employed counterparts show a similar behaviour irrespective of the characteristics of the recipient economy. These findings augment the scant available evidence about this topic in Europe (as most previous studies have focused on the United States) and confirm the existence of important differences in the entrepreneurial skills and mindset of native and migrant populations.