IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/indcch/v22y2013i1p313-337.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Billionaires

Author

Listed:
  • Tino Sanandaji
  • Peter T. Leeson

Abstract

Existing studies of entrepreneurship focus on entrepreneurs whose individual contribution to wealth creation is typically trivial: self-employed persons. This article investigates entrepreneurs whose individual contribution to wealth creation is enormous: billionaires. We explore the relationship between economic development, institutions, and these contrasting kinds of entrepreneurs. We find that the institutions consistent with self-employed entrepreneurs differ markedly from the ones consistent with billionaires. Further, only the latter are consistent with the institutions that underlie economic prosperity. Where well-protected private property rights and supporting, market-enhancing institutions flourish, so do billionaires. But self-employed entrepreneurs do not. Where private property rights are weakly protected and interventionist institutions flourish, so do self-employed entrepreneurs. But billionaires do not. Copyright 2013 The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Associazione ICC., Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Tino Sanandaji & Peter T. Leeson, 2013. "Billionaires," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 22(1), pages 313-337, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:indcch:v:22:y:2013:i:1:p:313-337
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/icc/dts052
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Reynolds & Niels Bosma & Erkko Autio & Steve Hunt & Natalie De Bono & Isabel Servais & Paloma Lopez-Garcia & Nancy Chin, 2005. "Global Entrepreneurship Monitor: Data Collection Design and Implementation 1998–2003," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 205-231, February.
    2. Harry P Bowen & Dirk De Clercq, 2008. "Institutional context and the allocation of entrepreneurial effort," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 39(4), pages 768-768, June.
    3. Anna L. Paulson & Robert M. Townsend & Alexander Karaivanov, 2006. "Distinguishing Limited Liability from Moral Hazard in a Model of Entrepreneurship," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 114(1), pages 100-144, February.
    4. Steven J. Davis & Magnus Henrekson, 2010. "Economic Performance and Market Work Activity in Sweden After the Crisis of the Early 1990s," NBER Chapters, in: Reforming the Welfare State: Recovery and Beyond in Sweden, pages 225-252, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Marco Cagetti & Mariacristina De Nardi, 2004. "Taxation, entrepreneurship, and wealth," Staff Report 340, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    6. Richard B. Freeman & Birgitta Swedenborg & Robert Topel, 2010. "Reforming the Welfare State: Recovery and Beyond in Sweden," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number free05-1, October.
    7. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James A. Robinson, 2001. "The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1369-1401, December.
    8. William M. Gentry & R. Glenn Hubbard, 2000. "Entrepreneurship and Household Saving," NBER Working Papers 7894, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Isabel Grilo & Roy Thurik, 2008. "Determinants of entrepreneurial engagement levels in Europe and the US," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 17(6), pages 1113-1145, December.
    10. Martin Andersson & Steven Klepper, 2013. "Characteristics and performance of new firms and spinoffs in Sweden," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 22(1), pages 245-280, February.
    11. Edward L. Glaeser & Andrei Shleifer, 2002. "Legal Origins," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(4), pages 1193-1229.
    12. Evans, David S & Leighton, Linda S, 1989. "Some Empirical Aspects of Entrepreneurship," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(3), pages 519-535, June.
    13. La Porta, Rafael & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1997. "Legal Determinants of External Finance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(3), pages 1131-1150, July.
    14. Simeon Djankov & Yingyi Qian & Gérard Roland & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, 2006. "Who Are China's Entrepreneurs?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 348-352, May.
    15. Wennekers, Sander & van Stel, André & Carree, Martin & Thurik, Roy, 2010. "The Relationship between Entrepreneurship and Economic Development: Is It U-Shaped?," Foundations and Trends(R) in Entrepreneurship, now publishers, vol. 6(3), pages 167-237, July.
    16. Magnus Henrekson & Dan Johansson, 2010. "Gazelles as job creators: a survey and interpretation of the evidence," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 227-244, September.
    17. 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 808-827, August.
    18. Yuen-Ping Ho & Poh-Kam Wong, 2007. "Financing, Regulatory Costs and Entrepreneurial Propensity," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 187-204, March.
    19. Magnus Henrekson & Tino Sanandaji, 2011. "Entrepreneurship and the theory of taxation," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 167-185, September.
    20. 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.
    21. André Stel & David Storey & A. Thurik, 2007. "The Effect of Business Regulations on Nascent and Young Business Entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 171-186, March.
    22. Christopher J. Coyne & Peter T. Leeson, 2004. "The Plight of Underdeveloped Countries," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 24(3), pages 235-249, Fall.
    23. Edward P. Lazear, 2004. "Balanced Skills and Entrepreneurship," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(2), pages 208-211, May.
    24. Klapper, Leora & Laeven, Luc & Rajan, Raghuram, 2006. "Entry regulation as a barrier to entrepreneurship," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(3), pages 591-629, December.
    25. Estrin, Saul & Korosteleva, Julia & Mickiewicz, Tomasz, 2009. "Better Means More: Property Rights and High-Growth Aspiration Entrepreneurship," IZA Discussion Papers 4396, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    26. repec:jpe:journl:811 is not listed on IDEAS
    27. Erik Hurst & Annamaria Lusardi, 2004. "Liquidity Constraints, Household Wealth, and Entrepreneurship," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(2), pages 319-347, April.
    28. Estrin, Saul & Mickiewicz, Tomasz & Aidis, Ruta, 2009. "Entrepreneurial Entry: Which Institutions Matter?," CEPR Discussion Papers 7278, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    29. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2006. "Does Culture Affect Economic Outcomes?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(2), pages 23-48, Spring.
    30. Robin Douhan & Magnus Henrekson, 2010. "Entrepreneurship and second-best institutions: going beyond Baumol’s typology," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 629-643, August.
    31. Roy Thurik & Isabel Grilo, 2005. "Latent and actual entrepreneurship in Europe and the US: some recent developments," Papers on Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy 2005-24, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy Group.
    32. repec:ucp:bknber:9780226261928 is not listed on IDEAS
    33. Joshua C. Hall & Russell S. Sobel, 2006. "Public Policy and Entrepreneurship," Technical Reports 060717, Brandmeyer Center for Applied Economics, School of Business, University of Kansas.
    34. Josh Lerner & Joacim Tåg, 2013. "Institutions and venture capital," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 22(1), pages 153-182, February.
    35. Dani Rodrik, 2008. "Second-Best Institutions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 100-104, May.
    36. Fonseca, Raquel & Lopez-Garcia, Paloma & Pissarides, Christopher A., 2001. "Entrepreneurship, start-up costs and employment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(4-6), pages 692-705, May.
    37. Russell Sobel & J. Clark & Dwight Lee, 2007. "Freedom, barriers to entry, entrepreneurship, and economic progress," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 20(4), pages 221-236, December.
    38. Marianne P. Bitler & Tobias J. Moskowitz & Annette Vissing‐Jørgensen, 2005. "Testing Agency Theory with Entrepreneur Effort and Wealth," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(2), pages 539-576, April.
    39. Fairlie, Robert, 1999. "The Absence of the African-American Owned Business: An Analysis of the Dynamics of Self-Employment," Santa Cruz Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt84v8v0nr, Department of Economics, UC Santa Cruz.
    40. Vincenzo Quadrini, 1999. "The Importance Of Entrepreneurship For Wealth Concentration And Mobility," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 45(1), pages 1-19, March.
    41. 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.
    42. repec:jpe:journl:683 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David J. Miller & Zoltan J. Acs, 2017. "The campus as entrepreneurial ecosystem: the University of Chicago," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 75-95, June.
    2. Back, Yujin & Praveen Parboteeah, K. & Nam, Dae-il, 2014. "Innovation in Emerging Markets: The Role of Management Consulting Firms," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 390-405.
    3. Thomas Åstebro & Pontus Braunerhjelm & Anders Broström, 2013. "Does academic entrepreneurship pay?," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 22(1), pages 281-311, February.
    4. Christopher I. Rider & Peter Thompson & Aleksandra Kacperczyk & Joacim TÃ¥g, 2019. "Experience and Entrepreneurship: A Career Transition Perspective," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 72(5), pages 1149-1181, October.
    5. Mthanti, Thanti & Ojah, Kalu, 2017. "Institutions, Human Capital and Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO): Implications for Growth Strategy," MPRA Paper 89551, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Esteban Lafuente & László Szerb & Zoltan J. Acs, 2016. "Country level efficiency and national systems of entrepreneurship: a data envelopment analysis approach," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 41(6), pages 1260-1283, December.
    7. Zoltán J. Ács & Mark W. J. L. Sanders, 2015. "Knowledge spillover entrepreneurship in an endogenous growth model," Chapters, in: Global Entrepreneurship, Institutions and Incentives, chapter 10, pages 174-194, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Andrea Asoni & Tino Sanandaji, 2014. "Taxation and the quality of entrepreneurship," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 113(2), pages 101-123, October.
    9. Åstebro, Thomas & Chen, Jing, 2014. "The entrepreneurial earnings puzzle: Mismeasurement or real?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 88-105.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wim Naudé, 2008. "Entrepreneurship in Economic Development," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2008-20, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Paul A. Coomes & Jose Fernandez & Stephan F. Gohmann, 2013. "The Rate of Proprietorship Among Metropolitan Areas: The Impact of the Local Economic Environment and Capital Resources," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 37(4), pages 745-770, July.
    3. Peter van der Zwan & Ingrid Verheul & Roy Thurik & Isabel Grilo, 2009. "Entrepreneurial Progress: Climbing the Entrepreneurial Ladder in Europe and the US," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 09-070/3, Tinbergen Institute, revised 17 Mar 2010.
    4. Niklas Elert, 2014. "What determines entry? Evidence from Sweden," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 53(1), pages 55-92, August.
    5. Christopher J. Boudreaux & Boris Nikolaev, 2019. "Capital is not enough: opportunity entrepreneurship and formal institutions," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(3), pages 709-738, October.
    6. Stephan F. Gohmann, 2012. "Institutions, Latent Entrepreneurship, and Self–Employment: An International Comparison," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 36(2), pages 295-321, March.
    7. Luis Medrano-Adán & Vicente Salas-Fumás & J. Sanchez-Asin, 2015. "Heterogeneous entrepreneurs from occupational choices in economies with minimum wages," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 597-619, March.
    8. Clemens, Christiane & Heinemann, Maik, 2010. "On entrepreneurial risk-taking and the macroeconomic effects of financial constraints," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(9), pages 1610-1626, September.
    9. Saul Estrin & Tomasz Mickiewicz & Anna Rebmann, 2017. "Prospect theory and the effects of bankruptcy laws on entrepreneurial aspirations," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 977-997, April.
    10. Silvia Ardagna & Annamaria Lusardi, 2009. "Where does regulation hurt? Evidence from new businesses across countries," NBER Working Papers 14747, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Steffen Andersen & Kasper Meisner Nielsen, 2012. "Ability or Finances as Constraints on Entrepreneurship? Evidence from Survival Rates in a Natural Experiment," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(12), pages 3684-3710.
    12. Bernstein, Shai & Colonnelli, Emanuele & Malacrino, Davide & McQuade, Tim, 2022. "Who creates new firms when local opportunities arise?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(1), pages 107-130.
    13. Junfu Zhang & Zhong Zhao, 2015. "Social-family network and self-employment: evidence from temporary rural–urban migrants in China," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-21, December.
    14. Ross Levine & Yona Rubinstein, 2018. "Selection into Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment," NBER Working Papers 25350, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Stefano Corradin, 2013. "House Prices, Household Leverage, and Entrepreneurship," 2013 Meeting Papers 631, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    16. Erik Monsen & Prashanth Mahagaonkar & Christian Dienes, 2012. "Entrepreneurship in India: the question of occupational transition," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 359-382, September.
    17. Camilo Mondragón-Vélez & Ximena Peña, 2010. "Business Ownership and Self-Employment in Developing Economies: The Colombian Case," NBER Chapters, in: International Differences in Entrepreneurship, pages 89-127, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Fonseca, Raquel & Michaud, Pierre-Carl & Sopraseuth, Thepthida, 2007. "Entrepreneurship, Wealth, Liquidity Constraints and Start-up Costs," IZA Discussion Papers 2874, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Thomas Gries & Wim Naudé, 2009. "When to Start a New Firm?: Modelling the Timing of Novice and Serial Entrepreneurs," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2009-39, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • L53 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Enterprise Policy
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:indcch:v:22:y:2013:i:1:p:313-337. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/icc .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.