This file is part of IDEAS, which uses RePEc data


[ Papers | Articles | Software | Books | Chapters | Authors | Institutions | JEL Classification | NEP reports | Search | New papers by email | Author registration | Rankings | Volunteers | FAQ | Blog | Help! ]

Entrepreneurship from Scratch: Lessons on the Entry Decision into Self-Employment from Transition Economies

Author info | Abstract | Publisher info | Download info | Related research | Statistics
Author Info
John S. Earle () (SITE, Stockholm School of Economics Central European University)
Zuzana Sakova (Rutgers University and CEU Labor Project)

Additional information is available for the following registered author(s):

Abstract

This paper exploits the rapid rise in self-employment rates in post-communist Eastern Europe as a valuable "quasi-experiment" for understanding the sources of entrepreneurship. A relative demand-supply model and an individual sectoral choice model are used to analyze a 1993 survey of 27,000 adults in six transition economies. Estimated self-employment earnings premia are positive, and the data imply positive selection into both employee and self-employment status. Structural probit estimates show the probability of self-employment entry is unassociated with former Communist Party affiliation but positively related to schooling, pre-transition family income, receipt of property in restitution, pre-communist family business-holding, and predicted earnings differential. Cross-country variation in predicted self-employment entry rates and relative earnings provide evidence on the demand and supply factors affecting the decision to become an entrepreneur.

Download Info
To download:

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. Information about this may be contained in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help file. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: ftp://repec.iza.org/RePEc/Discussionpaper/dp79.pdf
File Format: application/pdf
File Function:
Download Restriction: no

Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 79.

Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML, plain text, BibTeX, RIS (EndNote), ReDIF
Length: 47 pages
Date of creation: Dec 1999
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp79

Contact details of provider:
Postal: IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany
Phone: +49 228 3894 223
Fax: +49 228 3894 180
Web page: http://www.iza.org

Order Information:
Postal: IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany
Email:

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Mark Fallak).

Related research
Keywords: Entrepreneurship self-employment transition small business selection bias structural probit Eastern Europe Bulgaria Czech Republic Hungary Poland Russia Slovakia

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups
O57 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Comparative Studies of Countries
P2 - Economic Systems - - Socialist Systems and Transition Economies

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

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. George J. Borjas, 1986. "The Self-Employment Experience of Immigrants," NBER Working Papers 1942, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Bernard F. Lentz & David N. Laband, 1990. "Entrepreneurial Success and Occupational Inheritance among Proprietors," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 23(3), pages 563-79, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Heckman, James J, 1979. "Sample Selection Bias as a Specification Error," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(1), pages 153-61, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Blanchflower, David G., 2000. "Self-employment in OECD countries," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(5), pages 471-505, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Frye, Timothy & Shleifer, Andrei, 1997. "The Invisible Hand and the Grabbing Hand," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 354-58, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Ham, John C & Svejnar, Jan & Terrell, Katherine, 1998. "Unemployment and the Social Safety Net during Transitions to a Market Economy: Evidence from the Czech and Slovak Republics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(5), pages 1117-42, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. Douglas Holtz-Eakin & David Joulfaian & Harvey S. Rosen, 1994. "Entrepreneurial Decisions and Liquidity Constraints," NBER Working Papers 4526, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  8. David J. Cooper & Daniel M. Berkowitz, 1997. "Start-ups and Transition," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 84, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross Business School. [Downloadable!]
  9. Rees, Hedley & Shah, Anup, 1986. "An Empirical Analysis of Self-employment in the U.K," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 1(1), pages 95-108, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Anders Åslund & Peter Boone & Simon Johnson, 1996. "How to Stabilize: Lessons from Post -communist Countries," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 27(1996-1), pages 217-314. [Downloadable!]
  11. Lawrence F. Katz & Gary W. Loveman & David G. Blanchflower, 1993. "A Comparison of Changes in the Structure of Wages," NBER Working Papers 4297, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Robert J. Shiller & Maxim Boycko & Vladimir Korobov, 1992. "Hunting for Homo Sovieticus: Situational versus Attitudinal Factors in Economic Behavior," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 23(1992-1), pages 127-194. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  13. Barberis, Nicholas & Maxim Boycko & Andrei Shleifer & Natalia Tsukanova, 1996. "How Does Privatization Work? Evidence from the Russian Shops," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(4), pages 764-90, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  14. Gill, Andrew M, 1988. "Choice of Employment Status and the Wages of Employees and the Self-employed: Some Further Evidence," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 3(3), pages 229-34, July-Sept. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Lee, Lung-Fei, 1978. "Unionism and Wage Rates: A Simultaneous Equations Model with Qualitative and Limited Dependent Variables," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 19(2), pages 415-33, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Blanchard, O & Kremer, M, 1996. "Disorganization," Working papers 96-30, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
    Other versions:
  17. Bruce D. Meyer, 1990. "Why Are There So Few Black Entrepreneurs?," NBER Working Papers 3537, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Robert S. Chase, 1998. "Markets for communist human capital: Returns to education and experience in the Czech republic and Slovakia," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, ILR School, Cornell University, vol. 51(3), pages 401-423, April.
  19. 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)
  20. Baumol, William J, 1990. "Entrepreneurship: Productive, Unproductive, and Destructive," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 893-921, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  21. Meyer, Bruce D, 1995. "Natural and Quasi-experiments in Economics," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 13(2), pages 151-61, April.
    Other versions:
  22. J Earle & S Estrin & L Leshchenko, 1996. "Ownership Structures," CEP Discussion Papers 0315, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
  23. David G. Blanchflower & Richard Freeman, 1997. "The attitudinal legacy of Communist labor relations," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, ILR School, Cornell University, vol. 50(3), pages 438-459, April.
  24. Borjas, George J & Bronars, Stephen G, 1989. "Consumer Discrimination and Self-employment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(3), pages 581-605, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  25. Lindh, Thomas & Ohlsson, Henry, 1996. "Self-Employment and Windfall Gains: Evidence from the Swedish Lottery," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(439), pages 1515-26, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  26. Brainerd, Elizabeth, 1998. "Winners and Losers in Russia's Economic Transition," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(5), pages 1094-1116, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  27. 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)
  28. 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)
  29. Murrell, Peter, 1996. "How Far Has the Transition Progressed?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 25-44, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  30. Juhn, Chinhui & Murphy, Kevin M & Pierce, Brooks, 1993. "Wage Inequality and the Rise in Returns to Skill," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(3), pages 410-42, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  31. A. Richter & M.E. Schaffer, 1996. "The Performance of De Novo Private Firms in Russian Manufacturing," CERT Discussion Papers 9610, Centre for Economic Reform and Transformation, Heriot Watt University. [Downloadable!]
  32. Daniel S. Hamermesh, 1990. "Shirking or productive schmoozing: Wages and the allocation of time at work," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, ILR School, Cornell University, vol. 43(3), pages 121-133, February.
    Other versions:
  33. Barton H. Hamilton, 2000. "Does Entrepreneurship Pay? An Empirical Analysis of the Returns to Self-Employment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(3), pages 604-631, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  34. 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)
  35. 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:
  36. Flanagan, Robert J., 1998. "Were communists good human capitalists? The case of the Czech Republic," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 295-312, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  37. Shiller, Robert J & Boycko, Maxim & Korobov, Vladimir, 1991. "Popular Attitudes toward Free Markets: The Soviet Union and the United States Compared," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(3), pages 385-400, June.
    Other versions:
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. Co, Catherine Y. & Gang, Ira N. & Yun, Myeong-Su, 2002. "Self-Employment and Wage Earning: Hungary During Transition," IZA Discussion Papers 572, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Guariglia, Alessandra & Kim, Byung-Yeon, 2001. "The Dynamics of Moonlighting: What is happening in the Russian informal economy?," BOFIT Discussion Papers 5/2001, Bank of Finland, Institute for Economies in Transition. [Downloadable!]
  3. Tomi Ovaska & Russell S. Sobel, 2004. "Entrepreneurship in Post-Socialist Economies," Working Papers 04-06, Department of Economics, West Virginia University. [Downloadable!]
  4. Daniel Berkowitz & David DeJong, 2001. "Entrepreneurship and Post-Socialist Growth," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 406, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross Business School. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Klara Z. Sabirianova, 2000. "The Great Human Capital Reallocation: An Empirical Analysis of Occupational Mobility in Transitional Russia," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 309, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross Business School. [Downloadable!]
  6. John McMillan & Christopher Woodruff, 2002. "The Central Role of Entrepreneurs in Transition Economies," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(3), pages 153-170, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Steven Stillman, 2000. "Labor Market Uncertainty and Private Sector Labor Supply in Russia," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 359, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross Business School. [Downloadable!]
Statistics
Access and download statistics

Did you know? IDEAS also indexes software components.

This page was last updated on 2008-10-6.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Connecticut using RePEc data on a server sponsored by the Society for Economic Dynamics.