Robert W. Fairlie

The Absence of the African-American Owned Business: An Analysis of the Dynamics of Self-Employment

Estimates from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics indicate that African-American men are one-third as likely to be self-employed as white men. The large discrepancy is due to a black transition rate into self-employment that is approximately one-half the white rate and a black transition rate out of self-employment that is twice the white rate. Using a new variation of the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition technique, the author finds that racial differences in asset levels and probabilities of having self-employed fathers explain a large part of the gap in the entry rate, but almost none of the gap in the exit rate. Copyright 1999 by University of Chicago Press.

Ethnic and Racial Self-Employment Differences and Possible Explanations

We show that entrepreneurship rates differ substantially across 60 ethnic and racial groups in the United States. These differences exist within broad combinations of groups such as Asians and Hispanics, and are almost as great after regression controls, including age, education, immigrant status, and time in the country. We then provide evidence on a number of theories of entrepreneurship. An ethnic/racial groups self-employment rate is positively associated with the difference between average self-employment and wage/salary earnings for that group. Ethnic/racial groups which immigrate from countries with high business ownership rates do not have high business ownership rates in the U.S. Finally, we find that the more advantaged ethnic/racial groups, measured by wage/salary earnings, self-employment earnings, and unearned income, and not the more disadvantaged groups, have the highest self-employment rates.

Families, Human Capital, and Small Business: Evidence from the Characteristics of Business Owners Survey

Recent research has concluded that the children of business owners are substantially more likely than others to become self-employed themselves. The authors of this study find that more than half of business owners in the confidential, restricted-access 1992 Characteristics of Business Owners Survey had a self-employed family member before starting their business. Of the group with a self-employed family member, fewer than half had worked in that family members business, suggesting that the intergenerational link in self-employment is not primarily due to the acquisition of general and specific business human capital. In contrast, the success of small businesses owned by those surveyed was only weakly correlated with having a self-employed family member, but strongly correlated with prior work experience in a family members business, which is one method of acquiring general and specific business human capital. Another finding is that only 1.6% of the small businesses surveyed were inherited.

Why are Black-Owned Businesses Less Successful than White-Owned Businesses? The Role of Families, Inheritances, and Business Human Capital

Using confidential microdata from the Characteristics of Business Owners survey, we examine why African American–owned businesses lag substantially behind white‐owned businesses in sales, profits, employment, and survival. Black business owners are much less likely than white owners to have had a self‐employed family member owner prior to starting their business and less likely to have worked in that family member’s business. Using a nonlinear decomposition technique, we find that the lack of prior work experience in a family business among black business owners, perhaps by limiting their acquisition of general and specific business human capital, negatively affects black business outcomes.

Liquidity Constraints, Household Wealth, and Entrepreneurship Revisited

A large body research shows a positive relationship between wealth and entrepreneurship and interprets the relationship as providing evidence of liquidity constraints. Recently, however, the liquidity constraint interpretation has been challenged because of the finding that the relationship between business entry rates and assets is flat throughout most of the asset distribution and only rises dramatically after this point (Hurst and Lusardi 2004). We reexamine the liquidity constraint hypothesis in three ways. First, we demonstrate that examining the relationship separately for those who experience a job loss and those who do not reveals generally increasing entry rates through the wealth distribution for both groups. Based on the entrepreneurial choice model of Evans and Jovanovic (1989), these two groups face different incentives, and thus have different solutions to the entrepreneurial decision. We also find evidence of a stronger relationship between entrepreneurship and a different measure of wealth – net housing equity – for the two groups. Second, we examine the liquidity constraint hypothesis using a two-period simulation model that extends the Evans and Jovanovic (1989) model. The model shows how exogenous wealth shocks can be used to accurately identify the presence of liquidity constraints even allowing for endogenous saving and correlated abilities. Third, we provide new evidence from matched Current Population Survey (1993-2004) data to study whether changes in housing prices affect self-employment entry.

Trends in Self-Employment among White and Black Men during the Twentieth Century

We examine white and black male nonagricultural self-employment from 1910 to 1997. Self-employment rates fell through 1970 and then rose. White male trends were due to declining rates within industries, ending in 1970, counterbalanced by a continuing shift toward high self-employment industries. Social security and immigration do not explain the recent upturn. Black male rates have been roughly one-third of white rates from 1910 to 1997. Blacks are not concentrated in low self-employment rate industries. Absent continuing forces limiting black self-employment, a simple inter-generational model suggests quick convergence of black and white rates.

The Long-Term Costs of Job Displacement for Young Adult Workers.

Using NLSY data, the authors estimate the long-term costs of job displacement for young adults. Earnings and wage losses were large for the first three years following displacement. Compared to earnings losses found by other studies for more mature workers, however, earnings losses for these young adults were short-lived, with differences between observed and expected earnings narrowing considerably five years after job loss. At that point, the shortfall in annual earnings (relative to what would have been expected absent job loss) was 9% for men and 12.5% for women, and the shortfall in hourly wages was 21.2% for men. Young workers also apparently differ from more established workers in the composition of total earnings losses: for older workers, total losses largely represent actual, immediate earnings losses, whereas for young workers the loss of opportunities for rapid earnings growth is more important.

Drug Dealing and Legitimate Self-Employment

Theoretical models of self‐employment posit that attitudes toward risk, entrepreneurial ability, and preferences for autonomy are central to the individuals decision between self‐employment and wage/salary work. I provide indirect evidence on this hypothesis by examining the relationship between drug dealing as a youth and legitimate self‐employment in later years using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. I find that drug dealers are 11%–21% more likely to choose self‐employment than non‐drug‐dealers, all else equal. After ruling out a few alternative explanations, I interpret these results as providing indirect evidence supporting the hypothesis.

Does immigration induce ‘native flight’ from public schools into private schools?

The paper tests whether native-born American families respond to inflows of immigrants by sending their children to private school. The analysis uses 1980 and 1990 Census data from 132 metropolitan areas. For primary school students, no significant relation between immigration and private school enrollment is found. For secondary schools, a significant link emerges. For every four immigrants who arrive in public high schools, it is estimated that one native student switches to a private school. White students account for most of this flight. Natives appear to respond mainly to immigrant children who speak a language other than English at home.

Is There "White Flight" into Private Schools? Evidence from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey

Using a recently released confidential data set from the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES), we find some evidence of white flight from public schools into private schools partly in response to minority schoolchildren. We also examine whether white flight is from all minorities or only from certain minority groups, delineated by race or income. We find that white families are fleeing public schools with large concentrations of poor minority schoolchildren. In addition, the clearest flight appears to occur from poor black schoolchildren. The results for white flight from Asians and Hispanics are less clear.