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Horatio Alger Meets the Mobility Tables

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Author Info
Douglas Holtz-Eakin
Harvey S. Rosen
Robert Weathers

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Abstract

The question of how entrepreneurship relates to income mobility is cogent given the current public debate about the sources of income inequality and mobility in United States society. We examine how experience with entrepreneurship has affected an individual's place in the earnings distribution. Our basic tack is to follow individuals' positions in the income distribution over time, and to see how their mobility (or lack thereof) was affected by involvement with entrepreneurship. Our main finding is that for low-income individuals there is some merit to the notion that the self-employed moved ahead in the earnings distribution relative to those who remained wage earners. On the other hand, for those at the upper end of the earnings distribution, those who became self-employed often advanced less in the earnings distribution than their salaried counterparts.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 7619.

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Date of creation: Mar 2000
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7619

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand

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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. Brown, James N & Light, Audrey, 1992. "Interpreting Panel Data on Job Tenure," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(3), pages 219-57, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Jaeger, David A. & Stevens, Ann Huff, 1999. "Is Job Stability in the United States Falling?," IZA Discussion Papers 35, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  3. Vincenzo Quadrini, 1997. "Entrepreneurship, saving and social mobility," Discussion Paper / Institute for Empirical Macroeconomics 116, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. 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)
  5. Holtz-Eakin, Douglas & Joulfaian, David & Rosen, Harvey S, 1994. "Sticking It Out: Entrepreneurial Survival and Liquidity Constraints," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(1), pages 53-75, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. 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)
  7. Palme, Marten, 1995. "Earnings mobility and distribution: Comparing statistical models on Swedish data," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 213-247, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Peter Gottschalk & Timothy M. Smeeding, 1997. "Cross-National Comparisons of Earnings and Income Inequality," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(2), pages 633-687, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Bourguignon, F. & Morrisson, C. & Atkinson, A.B., 1991. "Empirical Studies of Earnings Mobility," DELTA Working Papers 91-14, DELTA (Ecole normale supérieure).
  10. Bruce, Donald, 1999. " Do Husbands Matter? Married Women Entering Self-Employment," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 317-29, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Bruce D. Meyer, 1990. "Why Are There So Few Black Entrepreneurs?," NBER Working Papers 3537, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Rolf Aaberge, Anders Björklund, Markus Jäntti, Mårten Palme, Peder J. Pedersen, Nina Smith and Tom Wennemo, 1996. "Income Inequality and Income Mobility in the Scandinavian Countries Compared to the United States," Discussion Papers 168, Research Department of Statistics Norway.
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  13. Moshe Buchinsky & Jennifer Hunt, 1996. "Wage Mobility in the United States," NBER Working Papers 5455, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. 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)
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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. Yannis Georgellis & Howard J. Wall, 2004. "Gender differences in self-employment," Working Papers 1999-008, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Douhan, Robin & Henrekson, Magnus, 2007. "The Political Economy of Entrepreneurship: An Introduction," Working Paper Series 688, Research Institute of Industrial Economics. [Downloadable!]
  3. Georgarakos, Dimitris & Tatsiramos, Konstantinos, 2009. "Immigrant Self-Employment: Does Intermarriage Matter?," IZA Discussion Papers 4350, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  4. Robert W. Fairlie & Christopher Woodruff, 2006. "Mexican Entrepreneurship: A Comparison of Self-Employment in Mexico and the United States," IZA Discussion Papers 2039, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  5. Robert W. Fairlie & Christopher Woodruff, 2007. "Mexican Entrepreneurship: A Comparison of Self-Employment in Mexico and the United States," NBER Chapters, in: Mexican Immigration to the United States, pages 123-158 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
  6. Thor Olav Thoresen, 2009. "Income Mobility of Owners of Small Businesses when Boundaries between Occupations are Vague," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
  7. C. Praag & Peter Versloot, 2007. "What is the value of entrepreneurship? A review of recent research," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 351-382, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  8. Karen E. Dynan & Douglas W. Elmendorf & Daniel E. Sichel, 2007. "The evolution of household income volatility," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2007-61, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  9. William M. Gentry & R. Glenn Hubbard, 2004. "Entrepreneurship and Household Saving," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, Berkeley Electronic Press, vol. 0(1). [Downloadable!]
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