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Billionaires

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  • 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.

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  • 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
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    6. 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.
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    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

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