Does Career Risk Deter Potential Entrepreneurs?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Gottlieb, Joshua D.; Townsend, Richard R.; Xu, Ting
• 署名单位: University of Chicago; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of California System; University of California San Diego; University of Virginia
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF FINANCIAL STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0893-9454
• DOI: 10.1093/rfs/hhab105
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 3973
• 关键词: regression discontinuity designs; financial development; parental leave; EMPLOYMENT; mothers; GROWTH; experimentation; PROTECTION; experience; pregnancy

摘要

Do potential entrepreneurs remain in wage employment because of concerns that they will face worse job opportunities should their entrepreneurial ventures fail? Using a Canadian reform that extends job-protected leave to one year for women giving birth after a cutoff date, we study whether the option to return to a previous job increases entrepreneurship. A regression discontinuity design reveals that a longer job-protected leave increases entrepreneurship by 1.9 percentage points. These entrepreneurs start incorporated businesses that hire employees, in industries in which experimentation before entry has low costs and high benefits.