The Impact of Immigrant Business Ownership on International Trade

Canada has a relatively large foreign-born population, and the country’s economic prosperity depends on international trade. This paper examines how these two characteristics are linked. Specifically, it investigates the effect of immigrant business ownership on international trade in Canada.

Understanding the impact of immigrants on international trade is particularly important for Canada, as it is a small open economy with a relatively large immigrant population. This paper empirically investigates the effect of immigrant business ownership on international trade in Canada using a newly developed firm-level database with detailed business ownership and trade information. The new data make it possible to better distinguish between the effect immigrants have on reducing information costs and on product demand, and to assess the impact of immigrant business ownership on the extensive and intensive margins of international trade.