Immigration and the export decision to the home country

Pre-print, Working paper: This paper analyzes the effect of immigrants' networks on the decision of individual firms to starting exporting to the immigrants' home country. Existing evidence on the trade-creating effect of immigrants show a robust effect, however at the national or regional level. Using French exports at the firm-level to 61 countries, I find that increasing the number of foreign immigrants in the region by 10 % increases the probability that a firm starts exporting to the immigrants' home country by 1.2%. More, the effect of immigrants is enhanced when immigrants are older or more educated. The effect of immigrants also varies among origin countries.

Author(s)

Pamina Koenig

Date of publication
  • 2009
Keywords JEL
F1 L25 R12
Keywords
  • Export decision
  • Networks
  • Export market
  • Immigration
Internal reference
  • PSE Working Papers n°2009-31
Version
  • 1