Refugee Entrepreneurship: The Case of Venezuelans in Colombia

Abstract

This paper analyzes the entire business registry of Colombia during 2015-2022, a period when Colombia received two million Venezuelan immigrants and refugees. We present two main findings. First, firms owned by foreigners, most of them Venezuelans, tend to be 10 to 20 percent more capitalized when founded as compared to firms owned by locals within the same industry, geographic location, and year of registration. Second, while more intensive in capital, these firms owned by foreigners are just as likely to survive the first two and three years as firms owned by locals are. We discuss the implications for these findings.