Demography →

How Younger Immigrants Gain an Edge in American Business

Immigrants often struggle to acquire both higher education and good jobs after migrating to a new country. A study by William Kerr finds that the age they arrive is key, with the teen years being ideal for achieving future success.

Fairness or Control: What Determines Elected Local Leaders’ Support for Hosting Refugees in Their Community?

Local politicians are not adamantly opposed to setting up host sites for refugees in their municipalities. However, they want a fair process to ensure that interaction between refugees and residents is limited, gradual, and mediated. Most importantly, local politicians want to control those interactions.

From Immigrants to Americans: Race and Assimilation During the Great Migration

The Great Migration of African Americans and the mass migration of Europeans both contributed to forming the modern American racial and ethnic landscape. This analysis finds that native whites more readily accepted European immigrants as African Americans arrived in the US North during the first Great Migration, facilitating the assimilation of European immigrants in northern urban centers.

When Gender Discrimination Is Not About Gender

Gender discrimination in a typically male workplace is not necessarily driven by misogyny. Rather, employers are less willing to hire applicants associated with a lower performing group-even if that group is defined by a demographic characteristic other than gender.

Personality Traits of Entrepreneurs: A Review of Recent Literature

This paper brings together recent findings in the academic literature on the prevalence of various personality traits among entrepreneurs and their impact on venture performance. It focuses on three themes: (1) personality traits of entrepreneurs and how they compare to other groups; (2) attitudes towards risk that entrepreneurs display; and (3) overall goals and aspirations that entrepreneurs bring to their pursuits.

Why German Business Supports, Trains and Hires Syrian Refugees

Germany has been taking in more than a million Syrian refugees each year, and involves the business community in making them productive workers. Has it worked out as hoped? In this podcast, Rebecca Henderson discusses her case study on Germany's experience. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

High-Skilled Migration and Agglomeration

Individuals with valuable skills have a higher propensity and offers to migrate both domestically and abroad due to the exceptional returns they can earn. Yet not all potential destinations are equally attractive in their professional and social opportunities. This review provides an in-depth analysis of available data and introduces several newly available data sources that are open to researchers. The patterns of high-skilled migration are quite consistent with agglomeration economies, such as the broad flows from a large number of source countries to very few destination countries. These data further show that migration selection processes for skill are becoming sharper and increasingly involve female migrants.

Global Talent Flows

Global migration patterns have become increasingly asymmetric and skewed along several dimensions, especially as skilled migration has become a greater force globally. This paper first surveys the landscape of global talent mobility, including under-appreciated features like the rising importance of the migration of talented women. The review next discusses the causes and consequences of high-skilled migration and the particular role of agglomeration/cluster economies. Rather than having migration reduce the incentives for others to migrate to a location, agglomeration effects for talented workers often serve to instead heighten the incentives for future talent to migrate as well (e.g., Hollywood). The paper next discusses the role of national “gatekeepers” in global talent flows, and contrasts the two main approaches taken by governments (i.e., points-based systems vs. employer-driven systems). While overall patterns will likely remain similar, different forms of high-skilled migration are likely to emerge and evolve.