خارج از دید، خارج از ذهن : مهاجرت، کارآفرینی و سرمایه اجتماعی

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether return migrants are more likely to become entrepreneurs than non-migrants. We develop a theoretical search model that puts forward the trade off faced by returnees since overseas migration provides an opportunity for human and physical capital accumulation but, at the same time, may lead to a loss of social capital back home. We test the predictions of the model using data from Egypt. We find that, even after controlling for the endogeneity of the temporary migration decision, an overseas returnee is more likely to become an entrepreneur than a non-migrant. Although migrants may lose their social capital, they accumulate savings and experience overseas that increase their chances of becoming entrepreneurs.

What makes an entrepreneur? This question has been the focus of few previous studies, which have tended to analyze the determinants of self-employment in developed countries and transitional economies (see, for example, Blanchflower and Oswald, 2004, Evans and Jovanovic, 1989, Evans and Leighton, 1989 and Djankov et al., 2005). Yet, very few papers have attempted to study this question for developing countries. Meanwhile, the wealth and poverty of developing countries are linked to the entrepreneurial nature of their economies. Entrepreneurship plays an important role in economic growth, innovation, and competitiveness as first highlighted by Schumpeter in 1911, but may also play a role in poverty alleviation (Landes, 1998). It is thus crucial to understand what makes an entrepreneur in developing countries. The rather small literature on this issue has put forward the importance of financial constraints in becoming an entrepreneur. Access to credit is seen as a major obstacle for entrepreneurship (see, e.g., Banerjee and Newman, 1993). Limited personal and family savings and lack of access to credit are seen to severely limit the growth prospects of promising startups in developing countries. Thus, policymakers and international organizations, interested in economic development, have supported micro-credit programs in developing countries as a means to encourage entrepreneurship. More recently, international migration has played an important role in allowing this liquidity constraint to be overcome. Temporary migration has been a conduit through which individuals have the opportunity to accumulate savings that can be used upon their return for setting up businesses. Several studies have been interested in how international migration provides a channel for accessing credit through overseas savings by focusing on the impact of savings on the occupational choice of returnees and in particular on self-employment and entrepreneurship. Using cross-sectional data from Pakistan, Ilahi (1999) finds that, upon return, savings become a significant factor in the choice of self-employment over waged employment. Mesnard (2004) models migration as a way to overcome credit constraints in the presence of capital markets imperfections. She finds that the majority of entrepreneurial projects started by Tunisian returnees were totally financed through overseas savings.1Dustmann and Kirchkamp (2002) develop a model where migrants simultaneously decide on the optimal migration duration and their after return activities. They find that among Turkish returnees more than half of them are economically active and engage in entrepreneurial activities. McCormick and Wahba (2001) add a different insight by showing that savings matter more than human capital acquisition for the probability of entrepreneurship of illiterate Egyptian returnees. However, for the educated returnees, both access to credit, through overseas savings, and human capital accumulation are significant determinants of entrepreneurship upon return. Woodruff and Zenteno (2007) find that migration networks help overcome capital constraints in Mexico. Using a survey of self-employed workers and small firm owners in Mexico that have access to remittance flows, they estimate the impact of attachment to migration networks on the level of capital investment, the capital-output ratio, sales, and profits of microenterprises.2 However most of those studies limit their analysis to return migrants only, while Woodruff and Zenteno (2007) consider households of migrants receiving remittances rather than return migrants. Yet, one important question is whether return migrants are more likely than non-migrants to become entrepreneurs (set-up businesses). The issue of whether return migrants are more or less likely to become entrepreneur has not been addressed before. Although physical capital is an important determinant of entrepreneurship and has been seen as an important factor by economists, there are potentially other factors that may impact on the individual's decision of setting up a business. Sociologists have stressed the importance of social capital as a determinant of entrepreneurship: entrepreneurs rely on their contacts for information and services (see, e.g. Greve and Salaff, 2003). This is an issue that has not really been tackled by economists. An exception is the work by Djankov et al., 2005 and Djankov et al., 2006 who provide suggestive evidence on the role played by social networks on entrepreneurship. They find that individuals whose relatives and school friends are entrepreneurs are themselves more likely to be entrepreneurs. Indeed, several economic studies have examined the role of social networks in migration (see e.g. Munshi, 2003 and McKenzie and Rapoport, 2010) and others have studied the role of social networks in job acquisition (see e.g. Wahba and Zenou, 2005). This migration literature has focused on the role played by social networks in the migration decision through reducing migration cost, for example, and in finding jobs upon arrival in the host country. However, the role played by the origin social networks in entrepreneurship has not attracted previous attention. Moreover, no one has examined the possible loss of social capital at country of origin as a result of emigration and whether this impacts on the entrepreneurial decision upon return. The aim of this paper is to study what makes an entrepreneur and to address the following questions. Are return migrants more likely to become entrepreneurs than non-migrants? Does emigration result in loss of social capital, hence out of sight, out of mind, and thus negatively affect the entrepreneurship decision? As a result, this paper attempts to address this important policy question regarding the determinants of entrepreneurship and whether return migrants are more likely to become entrepreneurs compared to non-migrants. This should impact on policies directed towards encouraging entrepreneurship and providing micro-credit in many developing countries. To answer the above questions, one needs to control for the potential endogeneity of the migration decision and the entrepreneurial decision upon return. On the one hand, migration might increase the probability of entrepreneurship but, on the other, it could be that individuals planning to be an entrepreneur are more likely to migrate. First, we develop a theoretical search model where we endogenize the migration and the entrepreneurship decisions and show the trade off faced by returnees since overseas migration provides an opportunity for human and physical capital accumulation but, at the same time, may lead to a loss of social capital back home. Then, we test these predictions using the Egyptian Labour Market Survey in 1998 by looking at both overseas returnees and non-migrants. We control for the potential endogeneity between temporary migration and entrepreneurship. We find that, controlling for the temporary migration decision, a returnee is more likely to become an entrepreneur than a non-migrant. Although migrants may potentially lose their social capital, they accumulate savings and experience overseas that increase their entrepreneurship. The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 develops the theoretical model. In Section 3, we describe the data, while the econometric model is presented in Section 4. The empirical findings are examined in Section 5 and further robustness checks are discussed. Finally, Section 6 concludes.

This paper examines an important issue for developing countries, namely what factors affect entrepreneurship. We focus on the case of return migrants and develop a theoretical search model that puts forward the trade off faced by returnees since overseas migration provides an opportunity for human and physical capital accumulation but, at the same time, may lead to a loss of social capital back home. We test the predictions of the model using Egyptian data and find that, controlling for the endogeneity of the temporary migration decision, an overseas returnee is more likely to become an entrepreneur than a non-migrant. Our results suggest that social networks increase the probability of entrepreneurship for non-migrants but not for returnees. On the other hand, human capital and savings affect the likelihood of returnees of becoming entrepreneurs. Interestingly, the findings also indicate that, although return migration and entrepreneurship are correlated, there might be a trade off between these two decisions. This paper sheds light on a very important policy issue for developing countries by showing how entrepreneurship depends on social networks, human capital and credit. Although migrants may potentially lose their social capital, they accumulate savings and experience overseas that increase their entrepreneurship. This, in a way, emphasizes the importance of access to credit as a major obstacle faced by entrepreneurs in developing countries. As a result, policies focusing on access to credit is of paramount importance for investment and thus for economic growth and development. Meanwhile, our findings also support schemes adopted to help return migrants re-integrate back upon their return due to the potential loss of social capital while overseas.