Research Briefs - In Economic Policy - Getting Schooled - The Role of Universities in Attracting Immigrant Entrepreneurs

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mia

Research Briefs in Economic Policy explores how universities and gatekeeping institutions shape the pathways of high-skilled immigrant entrepreneurs into the United States. Using venture-capital-backed founders, it documents immigrant shares in venture ecosystems, differences in sector choice—especially IT—and geographic concentration in coastal states. The study also categorizes entrepreneurs by whether they arrived for college, postgraduate education, or after education abroad, finding that over 75% of those with education data received schooling in the U.S., highlighting universities as key channels for importing entrepreneurial talent.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages3

Reading Time8 min

AccessFree to download

Getting Schooled

Immigrant pathways and institutional gatekeepers

Venture-capital backing and entrepreneurial outcomes

Empirical facts on immigrant founders

Education routes and the role of U.S. universities

Sectoral and geographic patterns

| | | --- | | | | R E S E A R C HB R I E F S | | I N E C O N O M I C P O L I C Y | | December 15 , 2 02 1 Number 2 8 0 | Getting Schooled The Role of Universities in Attracting Immigrant Entrepreneurs By Nate e a morN siri paN itch, Federal reserve BaNk oF philadelphia ; paul a . Go mp ers, harvard uNiversity; GeorGe hu, harvard uNiversity; aNd kau shi k vasudeva N, yale uNiversity I mmigrants play a vital role in innovation activities and entrepreneurship. Given the substantial contribution of immigrants in these areas, a set of natural questions arise: What are the pathways that high- skilled immigrants take to arrive in the United States, and how has the importance of these pathways changed overtime? What are important institutions that serve as gatekeepers for high-skilled immigrants, and do they affect the types of immigrant founders that come to the United States? Do certain parts of the United States benefit disproportionately from high-skilled immigration, and if so, what are some factors that contribute to these benefits? The answers to these questions have important implications for designing immigration policy and regulation, which have become increasingly acrimonious topics in public discourse. They also have important implications for firms and universities that recruit talent from abroad and for the communities that hope to promote vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems. To answer these questions, we study immigrant entrepreneurs backed by venture capital (VC) . The VC ecosystem plays a crucial role in the macroeconomy, with VC-backed firms contributing disproportionately to firm size and innovation in the U.S. economy. VC-backed firms are also substantial job creators for the U.S. economy; focusing on the contribution of immigrant founders of VC-backed firms illustrates the job-creating role that immigrants play in the economy, helping address concerns that immigrants primarily take jobs away from natives. Finally, various policymakers have endeavored to design policies that promote and foster entrepreneurship with high growth potential. Accordingly, understanding the contribution of immigrants to this important part of the economy is of interest in its own right. Editor, JEFFREY MIRON, Harvard University and Cato Institute. As we discuss further, the detailed data set we assemble on immigrant entrepreneurs yields insights that are likely to be generalizable to high-skilled immigrants in general. We begin our empirical analysis by documenting several facts about immigrant entrepreneurs in our sample. We estimate that approximately 20 percent of the founders in our sample are immigrants, broadly inline with estimates in other work on the immigrant share in other entrepreneurial and innovation activities. Consistent with overall immigration trends, we find that the proportion of East Asian and South Asian founders has increased substantially over our sample. We also find that immigrant founders are just as likely as native founders to start firms that have initial public offerings or are acquired at valuations greater than $100 million, markers of success for VC-backed firms. Moreover, relative to natives, immigrants disproportionately tend to start information technology (IT) firms. On a relative basis, venture-backed firms founded by immigrants also tend tobe established in coastal states, most notably California, Massachusetts, and New York, as opposed to smaller states in the southern and middle parts of the country. Thus, even relative to their overall greater share of VC-backed companies, these coastal states have higher proportions of founders who are immigrants. This last fact indicates that the benefits associated with firms with high growth potential founded by immigrants have been especially geographically concentrated in certain parts of the country. Having established these broad facts about immigrant entrepreneurs and their firms, we move to leveraging our unique data on the educa

FAQs

What does the brief study about immigrant entrepreneurs?

It examines how high-skilled immigrant entrepreneurs reach the U.S., which institutions act as gatekeepers, and whether benefits concentrate geographically. It also links these questions to implications for immigration policy and for universities and firms recruiting abroad.

What key empirical facts are reported about immigrant founders backed by venture capital?

About 20% of founders in the sample are immigrants. Immigrant founders are similarly likely as natives to achieve IPOs or acquisitions above $100 million and are disproportionately represented in information technology firms, with greater presence in coastal states such as California, Massachusetts, and New York.

How do different education pathways of immigrants relate to entrepreneurship in the U.S.?

Immigrant entrepreneurs are grouped by whether they came for college, postgraduate education, or after education elsewhere. More than 75% of those with available education information received schooling in the U.S., and over half earned an undergraduate degree in the U.S., indicating universities’ importance in importing entrepreneurial talent.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mia