Refugee Entrepreneurship: The Case of Venezuelans in Colombia

This paper analyzes the entire business registry of Colombia during 2015 to 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 2 and 3 years as firms owned by locals. We discuss implications for these findings.