Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/223832 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 13390
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Emigration of young, motivated individuals may deprive countries-of-origin of entrepreneurs. We isolate exogenous variation in a large emigration wave from Italy between 2008 and 2015 by interacting diaspora networks with economic pull factors in destination countries, and find that larger emigration rates reduced firm creation and innovative start-ups. We estimate that for every 100 emigrants, 26 fewer firms were created. An accounting exercise shows that 37 percent of the effect was due to the disproportionate loss of young people. The remaining effect was due to selection into emigration of highly entrepreneurial individuals, as well as negative spillovers on firm creation.
Subjects: 
emigration
demography
brain drain
entrepreneurship
innovation
EU integration
JEL: 
J61
H7
O3
M13
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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