14094: Immigrant Entrepreneurship and Political Clientelism: A Field Experiment (session 25508)

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This paper examines the impact of immigrant entrepreneurship status and political clientelism on attracting attention from state legislators—key public resource providers. We investigate not only whether entrepreneurs’ immigrant status and political constituency affect attention received from legislators but also the conditions under which nonimmigrant entrepreneurs are likelier to receive attention than immigrant entrepreneurs. Using a field experiment with 6,734 US state legislators, we randomized entrepreneurs’ immigrant status (1st or 3rd Generation American) and constituency alignment (inside or outside the legislator’s district) in a 2×2 between-subjects design: (a) 3rd Generation Inside Constituency, (b) 3rd Generation Outside Constituency, (c) 1st Generation Inside Constituency, (d) 1st Generation Outside Constituency. Our results show that state legislators allocate their attention unequally: reply rates for immigrant entrepreneurs (1st Generation American) are substantially lower than for nonimmigrant entrepreneurs (3rd Generation American). Importantly, our findings suggest the role of political clientelism. Specifically, we find that the difference between legislator reply rates for immigrant and nonimmigrant entrepreneurs is higher within the legislators’ constituency but negligible outside it. The relative difference is larger for Republican legislators and smaller in states with more immigrant eligible voters. State’s startup job creation, immigrant educational attainment, and racial composition influence the relative differential.

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