Immigrants are highly entrepreneurial. But, what is the broader relationship between high-skilled immigration and regional entrepreneurship activity beyond the ventures that immigrants establish themselves? Using administrative data on newly awarded H-1B visas in the United States, we document a positive relationship between high-skilled immigration and regional entrepreneurship. A doubling of immigrants to a metropolitan statistical area is followed by a 6% increase in entrepreneurship within three years. In contrast, continuing H-1Bs and the arrival of unskilled immigrants (H-2B visas) do not increase regional entrepreneurship. Focusing on Indian immigrants (representing about 70% of all H-1B visas), we find the effect is stronger in metropolitan statistical areas with a larger local Indian population, but not other nationalities, suggesting that presence of conationals facilitates the relationship between high-skilled immigration and regional entrepreneurship. We present this and other evidence as consistent with a knowledge transfer mechanism.

中文翻译：

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高技能移民增强地区创业精神


移民具有很强的创业精神。但是，除了移民自己创办的企业之外，高技能移民与地区创业活动之间更广泛的关系是什么？利用美国新颁发的 H-1B 签证的管理数据，我们记录了高技能移民与地区创业之间的正相关关系。三年内，大都市统计区的移民数量增加一倍，创业率就会增加 6%。相比之下，持续的 H-1B 和非技术移民（H-2B 签证）的到来并不会增加地区创业精神。重点关注印度移民（约占所有 H-1B 签证的 70%），我们发现，在本地印度人口较多的大都市统计区域，这种影响更强，但其他国籍的影响则不然，这表明同族人的存在促进了高收入群体之间的关系。技术移民和区域创业。我们提出的这一证据和其他证据与知识转移机制是一致的。