On the Origins of Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Sibling Correlations

Matthew J. Lindquist, Joeri Sol, Mirjam Van Praag, Theodor Vladasel

    Publikation: Working paperForskning

    173 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Promoting entrepreneurship has become an increasingly important part of the policy agenda in many countries. The success of such policies, however, rests in part on the assumption that entrepreneurship outcomes are not fully determined at a young age by factors that are unrelated to current policy. We test this assumption and assess the importance of family background and neighborhood effects as determinants of entrepreneurship, by estimating sibling correlations in entrepreneurship. We find that between 20 and 50 percent of the variance in different entrepreneurial outcomes is explained by factors that siblings share (i.e., family background and neighborhood effects). The average is 28 percent. Hence, entrepreneurship is far less than fully determined at a young age. Our estimates increase only a little when allowing for differential treatment within families by gender and birth order. We then investigate a comprehensive set of mechanisms that explain sibling similarities. Parental entrepreneurship plays a large role in explaining sibling similarities, as do shared genes. We show that neighborhood effects matter, but are rather small, particularly when compared with the overall importance of family factors. Sibling peer effects, and parental income and education matter even less.
    OriginalsprogEngelsk
    UdgivelsesstedLondon
    UdgiverCentre for Economic Policy Research
    Antal sider53
    StatusUdgivet - 2016
    NavnCentre for Economic Policy Research. Discussion Papers
    NummerDP11562
    ISSN0265-8003
    NavnIZA Discussion Paper
    Nummer10278

    Emneord

    • Entrepreneurship
    • Family background
    • Intergenerational persistence
    • Neighborhood effects
    • Occupational choice
    • Sibling correlations

    Citationsformater