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Not for Lack of Trying : American Entrepreneurship in Black and White

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Author Info
Philipp Köllinger
Maria Minniti

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Abstract

Using a sample obtained from a survey conducted in the United States during summer 2002, we study the variables related to observed differences in the rate of entrepreneurial involvement between black and white Americans. We find strong evidence that differences in subjective and often biased perceptions are highly associated with entrepreneurial propensity across these two racial groups. In addition, we find that black Americans tend to exhibit more optimistic perceptions of their business environment than other racial groups and are more likely than others to attempt starting a business. In fact, our results show that blacks are almost twice as likely as whites to try starting a business. Thus, our results suggest that the under representation of black Americans among established entrepreneurs is not due to lack of trying but may instead be due to stronger barriers to entry and higher failure rates.

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Paper provided by DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research in its series Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin with number 574.

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Length: 33 p.
Date of creation: 2006
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Publication status: Published in: Small Business Economics 27 (2006), Nr. 1, 59-78
Handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp574

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Related research
Keywords: Entrepreneurship Black Entrepreneurship Minority Entrepreneurship Nascent Entrepreneurship.

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D01 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles
J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities and Races; Non-labor Discrimination
J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Antonio E. Bernardo & Ivo Welch, 2001. "On the Evolution of Overconfidence and Entrepreneurs," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1307, Cowles Foundation, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. D. Storey, 2004. "Racial and Gender Discrimination in the Micro Firms Credit Market?: Evidence from Trinidad and Tobago," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 401-422, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Richard H. Thaler, 2000. "From Homo Economicus to Homo Sapiens," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(1), pages 133-141, Winter. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. David G. Blanchflower, 2004. "Self-Employment: More may not be better," NBER Working Papers 10286, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Blanchflower, David G. & Oswald, Andrew & Stutzer, Alois, 2001. "Latent entrepreneurship across nations," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(4-6), pages 680-691, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Clark, Kenneth & Drinkwater, Stephen, 1998. "Ethnicity and Self-Employment in Britain," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 60(3), pages 383-407, August.
  7. Arrow, Kenneth J, 1998. "What Has Economics to Say about Racial Discrimination?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 91-100, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Busenitz, Lowell W. & Barney, Jay B., 1997. "Differences between entrepreneurs and managers in large organizations: Biases and heuristics in strategic decision-making," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 9-30, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Ken Cavalluzzo & Linda Cavalluzzo & John Wolken, 1999. "Competition, small business financing, and discrimination: evidence from a new survey," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 1999-25, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  10. Fairlie, Robert W & Sundstrom, William A, 1997. "The Racial Unemployment Gap in Long-Run Perspective," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 306-10, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Davidsson, Per & Honig, Benson, 2003. "The role of social and human capital among nascent entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 301-331, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Forbes, Daniel P., 2005. "Are some entrepreneurs more overconfident than others?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 623-640, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Bruce D. Meyer, 1990. "Why Are There So Few Black Entrepreneurs?," NBER Working Papers 3537, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Evans, David S & Leighton, Linda S, 1989. "Some Empirical Aspects of Entrepreneurship," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(3), pages 519-35, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Timothy Bates, 2001. "Financing the development of urban minority communities: lessons of history," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, issue Apr, pages 217-236. [Downloadable!]
  16. Joachim Wagner & Rolf Sternberg, 2004. "Start-up activities, individual characteristics, and the regional milieu: Lessons for entrepreneurship support policies from German micro data," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 219-240, 06. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Ken S. Cavalluzzo, 2002. "Competition, Small Business Financing, and Discrimination: Evidence from a New Survey," Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75(4), pages 641-680, October. [Downloadable!]
  18. Philipp Köllinger & Maria Minniti & Christian Schade, 2005. ""I Think I Can, I Think I Can" : Overconfidence and Entrepreneurial Behavior," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 501, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  19. Fairlie, Robert W, 1999. "The Absence of the African-American Owned Business: An Analysis of the Dynamics of Self-Employment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(1), pages 80-108, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. Evans, David S & Jovanovic, Boyan, 1989. "An Estimated Model of Entrepreneurial Choice under Liquidity Constraints," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(4), pages 808-27, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  21. White, Halbert, 1982. "Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Misspecified Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(1), pages 1-25, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  22. Robert W. Fairlie, 2004. "Recent Trends in Ethnic and Racial Business Ownership," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 203-218, October. [Downloadable!]
  23. Kihlstrom, Richard E & Laffont, Jean-Jacques, 1979. "A General Equilibrium Entrepreneurial Theory of Firm Formation Based on Risk Aversion," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(4), pages 719-48, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  24. Blanchflower, David G & Oswald, Andrew J, 1998. "What Makes an Entrepreneur?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(1), pages 26-60, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  25. Minniti, Maria, 2005. "Entrepreneurship and network externalities," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 1-27, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Glenn Yago & Betsy Zeidman & Alethea Abuyuan, 2007. "A history of emerging domestic markets," Community Development Investment Review, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, pages 1-22. [Downloadable!]
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