A Risky Venture: Income Dynamics among Pass-Through Business Owners

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Debacker, Jason; Panousi, Vasia; Ramnath, Shanthi
• 署名单位: University of South Carolina System; University of South Carolina Columbia; Universite de Montreal; Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve Bank - Chicago
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-MACROECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7707
• DOI: 10.1257/mac.20200134
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 444-474
• 关键词: UNITED-STATES; entrepreneurship; INEQUALITY; INVESTMENT; GROWTH; CHOICE

摘要

We employ a large panel of US income tax returns for the period 1987-2018 to extensively characterize and quantify business income risk. Our findings show business income to be much riskier than labor income. Business income is less persistent and is characterized by higher tail risk. Furthermore, when compared to labor income, heterogeneity across households is less important in explaining the cross-sectional variation in business income, and within-household income variation is more important. Our results underscore the income risks business owners face and provide stylized facts and parameter estimates useful for quantitative macroeconomic models and policy analysis. (JEL D31, G51, H24, J23, J31, K34, L26)