Research Catalog

Race, self-employment, and upward mobility : an illusive American dream

Title: Race, self-employment, and upward mobility : an illusive American dream / Timothy Bates.
Author: Bates, Timothy Mason.
Publication: Washington, D.C. : Woodrow Wilson Center Press ; Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Request in advance	HD8037.U5 B384 1997	Off-site

Description

x, 288 pages; 24 cm

Summary

Race, Self-employment, and Upward Mobility refutes conventional notions about entrepreneurship with a wealth of unimpeachable data. Timothy Bates finds that self-employment and upward mobility are open to those who are highly educated and skilled, often possessing significant personal financial resources. This is true among Asian Americans, African Americans, and everybody else, too.
Asian immigrants are prominent in low-profit, high-risk inner city retailing, Bates explains, because they are often pushed into it by poor English language skills and problems of credentialing - when they can secure other employment, they do so. African Americans, in contrast, who have the education, capital, and inclination to become entrepreneurs find better-paying opportunities and avoid ghetto shopkeeping.
Bates compares black and Asian self-employment. He reviews who becomes self-employed, what factors encourage continuing self-employment, and how people escape unsuccessful self-employment. He addresses the place of entrepreneurship in upward mobility among disadvantaged persons and the role of government in assisting them. Bates's analysis is based largely on the massive Characteristics of Business Owners survey compiled by the U.S.
Census Bureau, which provides nationwide information on small business success and survival patterns.

Subjects

Bibliography (note)

Contents

Ch. 1. Entrepreneurship and Upward Mobility among Asian Immigrants and African Americans -- Ch. 2. Class Resources and Self-employment Entry and Exit Patterns -- Ch. 3. Social Resources Generated by Group Support Networks: Do They Benefit Asian-Immigrant-Owned Small Businesses? -- Ch. 4. Escaping from Self-Employment: An Analysis of Asian-Immigrant-Owned Small Businesses -- Ch. 5. Explaining the Self-employment Patterns of Asian Immigrants in the United States -- Ch. 6. Financing Small-Business Creation: The Case of Chinese and Korean Entrepreneurs -- Ch. 7. Traditional and Emerging Lines of Black-Owned Small Businesses -- Ch. 8. The Owner's Human Capital and Market Accessibility: Factors Shaping the Black Business Community -- Ch. 9. Access to Financial Capital: Factors Shaping the Black Business Community -- Ch. 10. Entrepreneurship as a Route to Upward Mobility among the Disadvantaged -- Ch. 11. Government's Role in Assisting Minority-Owned Businesses --
Ch. 12. The Meaning of Small-Business Success -- Appendix. Databases and Variable Definitions.

ISBN

LCCN

97017782

OCLC

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries