SMART AND ILLICIT: WHO BECOMES AN ENTREPRENEUR AND DO THEY EARN MORE?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Levine, Ross; Rubinstein, Yona
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Berkeley; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science
• 刊物名称: QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-5533
• DOI: 10.1093/qje/qjw044
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 963-1018
• 关键词: self-employment; liquidity constraints; SENSATION SEEKING; returns; optimism; skills; FIRMS

摘要

We disaggregate the self-employed into incorporated and unincorporated to distinguish between entrepreneurs and other business owners. We show that the incorporated self-employed and their businesses engage in activities that demand comparatively strong nonroutine cognitive abilities, while the unincorporated and their firms perform tasks demanding relatively strong manual skills. People who become incorporated business owners tend to be more educated and-as teenagers-score higher on learning aptitude tests, exhibit greater self-esteem, and engage in more illicit activities than others. The combination of smart and illicit tendencies as youths accounts for both entry into entrepreneurship and the comparative earnings of entrepreneurs. Individuals tend to experience a material increase in earnings when becoming entrepreneurs, and this increase occurs at each decile of the distribution.