Refugee Entrepreneurship: The Case of Venezuelans in Colombia
AEA Papers and Proceedings
vol. 113,
May 2023
(pp. 352-56)
Abstract
This paper analyzes the entire business registry of Colombia during 2015–2022, a period when Colombia received two million Venezuelan immigrants and refugees. We present two main findings. First, firms owned by foreigners, most of them Venezuelans, tend to be 10 to 20 percent more capitalized when founded as compared to firms owned by locals within the same industry, geographic location, and year of registration. Second, while more intensive in capital, these firms owned by foreigners are just as likely to survive the first two and three years as firms owned by locals are. We discuss the implications for these findings.Citation
Bahar, Dany, Bo Cowgill, and Jorge Guzman. 2023. "Refugee Entrepreneurship: The Case of Venezuelans in Colombia." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 113: 352-56. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20231020Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- F23 Multinational Firms; International Business
- G32 Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- L26 Entrepreneurship
- O14 Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
- O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration