ویژگی های فردی در مقابل ویژگی های ساختاری شهرستان: توضیح تفاوت های خود اشتغالی در میان چینی، ژاپنی و فیلیپینی در ایالات متحده

Using data from the 1990 Census Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS), this paper tests several theories explaining differing rates of self-employment for Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino. The primary purpose is to separate out the effects of individual characteristics versus structural effects by city. The primary conclusions reached are: (1) differences in individual characteristics explain much of the differences in city self-employment rates for Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos and (2) theories explaining high rates of ethnic self-employment based on ethnic resources, disadvantage/discrimination, differences in self-employment earnings and wage earnings are tested but none universally explain much of the differences in city self-employment rates for any of the three groups.

The creation of small businesses by ethnic and racial groups in the United States is of interest for a number of reasons. First, self-employment is frequently viewed as a positive economic indicator for a racial and ethnic group. US Federal policy seeks to increase business formation among ethnic minorities and women as a means to further economic equality via special loan programs and Federal contracting requirements favoring ethnic businesses. Second, small business creation is cited as a means of fostering employment opportunities and economic independence particularly in US urban areas (Aronson, 1991). Third, small businesses are viewed as an important element of immigrant economic adaptation and survival. For example, Portes (1987) argues that the ethnic enclave of small businesses formed by Cuban refugees gives some Cuban refugee workers an economic advantage compared to employment outside the enclave. On the other hand, Light and Bonacich (1988) claim that immigrant and ethnic enterprises allow the exploitation of low-wage, ethnic labor within the US. This paper examines differences in self-employment among three Asian groups—Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos in the United States. Asian Americans are one of the fastest growing ethnic populations in the US with a higher rate of self-employment compared to other ethnic groups. The data for this study is provided by the 1990 Census of Population Public Use Micro Sample (PUMS). The basic methodology employed is to first estimate differences in city self-employment rates controlling for individual characteristic differences and then to use these estimated self-employment differences as dependent variables in ordinary least squares regressions to examine the effects of city-based structural variables. Theories based on differences in individual characteristics as well as differences in city structural characteristics such as differences in sectoral (wage versus self-employment) earnings, differences in access to ethnic resources, differences in access to ethnic workers, differences in effects of discrimination, and differences in disadvantage are tested. Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino men were separately studied for a number of reasons. First, many studies of self-employment lump Asians into a single category even though the economic history of different Asian groups has been quite different. Second, sample size considerations severely limit the number of observations by city for women. Third, other Asian groups, e.g. Koreans and Vietnamese, have only recently experienced enough large scale immigration to provide a sufficient sample for the analyses the follows.

This paper has sought to explain differences in self-employment rates for Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino men in the United States by city. Using a method similar to Fairlie and Meyer to explain differences in self-employment rates by ethnicity, this analysis suggests several conclusions. First, individual characteristics explain from half to two thirds of the variation in city self-employment rates for Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino men. This result is similar to Light and Rosenstein's study. Second, Filipinos appear to be very different from Chinese and Japanese in terms of self-employment. Instead of self-employment being an immigrant response to limitations in the US economy, US-born Filipinos are more likely to enter self-employment than foreign-born Filipinos. Third, there is little evidence for Fairlie and Meyer's model of differences in self-employment earnings and wage earnings in explaining differences in city self-employment rates for Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino men. Fourth, the ethnic networking hypothesis, perhaps imperfectly tested by including percentages of ethnic and racial groups in the entire population, also has limited support. The percentage of own ethnicity by city is not significantly related to ethnic self-employment rates. However, the effect of the percentage of Hispanics by city does lend some support to the middleman/exploitation of low wage labor theories for Chinese and Japanese. Fifth, discrimination, crudely measured by the ratio of Asian American to non-Hispanic White earnings, appears to have little impact on self-employment rates for all three groups. Finally, labor market conditions, as measured by the unemployment rate, do appear to slightly increase self-employment rates for Japanese men. Overall, none of the theories tested appear to universally explain Asian differences in city self-employment rates in all cases. Current Japanese self-employment is appears to be based largely on older Japanese immigrants as opposed to recent foreign-born Japanese. For Filipinos, the unique US–Philippines relationship brought many immigrants to the US with specific occupational skills—nursing, accounting for example, and jobs that offer a low risk compared to self-employment. Self-employment by US-born Filipinos may now be a viable option not pursued by their risk adverse immigrant parents. Much of the previous research on self-employment has focused on individual characteristics in order to infer societal structural effects such as discrimination and ethnic enclave effects. This study has attempted to directly test some of these structural theories with some simple models. Although the structural models are simplified, the empirical results lend little support for these structural models. Overall, the empirical results argue against a simple universal economic or social theory for self-employment. The analysis does suggest that the determinants of self-employment may be largely attributed to individual characteristics. However, the effects of individual characteristics such as education on self-employment do differ by ethnic group. Moreover, the structural explanations previously advanced may have been true historically, but less so currently. Given these results, changes in US immigration policies that alter individual characteristics will change the degrees of self-employment among Asian groups. For example, immigration laws favoring college educated, professional workers will decrease the percentages of self-employed amongst the Chinese and Japanese populations. In addition, the growing numbers of US-born Japanese and Filipinos will have differing effects on self-employment. Increases in the percentage of US-born, college educated Filipinos should increase the level of self-employment for Filipinos, which has traditionally been lower than most Asian American groups. On the other hand, the continued increase in US-born Japanese will lead to lower levels of self-employment amongst Japanese Americans.