IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cep/cepdps/dp0665.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Entrepreneurship: Can the Jack-of-All-Trades Attitude be Aquired?

Author

Listed:
  • Olmo Silva

Abstract

Entrepreneurs are believed to be the ultimate engine of modern economic systems. Yet, the study ofentrepreneurship suffers from the lack of consensus on the most crucial question: what makes anentrepreneur? A recent theory developed by Edward Lazear suggests that individuals mastering abalanced set of talents across different fields, i.e. the Jacks-of-All-Trades (JATs), have a highprobability of becoming entrepreneurs. In this paper, I investigate whether the JAT Attitude is just aninnate ability or a skill that can be trained to enhance individuals' chances of becoming entrepreneurs.Using panel techniques, I show that changes in the spread of knowledge across different fields do notincrease the probability of becoming an entrepreneur. This suggests that, if the JAT Attitude mattersfor entrepreneurship, it is an innate and time-invariant individual attribute, rather than a skill that canbe acquired.

Suggested Citation

  • Olmo Silva, 2004. "Entrepreneurship: Can the Jack-of-All-Trades Attitude be Aquired?," CEP Discussion Papers dp0665, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp0665
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp0665.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Van Reenen & Rupert Harrison & Rachel Griffith, 2006. "How Special Is the Special Relationship? Using the Impact of U.S. R&D Spillovers on U.K. Firms as a Test of Technology Sourcing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1859-1875, December.
    2. Yashiv, Eran, 2004. "The Self-Selection of Migrant Workers Revisited," IZA Discussion Papers 1094, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Alberto Bayo-Moriones, 2001. "Seniority-based pay: Is it used as a motivation device?," Working Papers 200103, Departament Empresa, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
    4. Stephen Machin & Olivier Marie, 2006. "Crime and benefit sanctions," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 5(2), pages 149-165, August.
    5. Rachel Griffith & Stephen Redding & Helen Simpson, 2004. "Foreign Ownership and Productivity: New Evidence from the Service Sector and the R&D Lab," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 20(3), pages 440-456, Autumn.
    6. Alberto Bayo-Moriones, 2001. "Seniority-based pay: is it used as a motivation device?," Working Papers 0103, Departament Empresa, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, revised May 2001.
    7. Van Reenen, John, 2004. "Is there a market for work group servers? Evaluating market level demand elasticities using micro and macro models," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 773, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Anthony J. Venables, 2007. "Evaluating Urban Transport Improvements: Cost-Benefit Analysis in the Presence of Agglomeration and Income Taxation," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 41(2), pages 173-188, May.
    9. Alex Bryson & Lorenzo Cappellari & Claudio Lucifora, 2004. "Do Job Security Guarantees Work?," CEP Discussion Papers dp0661, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    10. Mr. Christopher W. Crowe, 2006. "Inflation, Inequality, and Social Conflict," IMF Working Papers 2006/158, International Monetary Fund.
    11. Ralf Martin, 2004. "Globalisation, ICT and the Nitty Gritty of Plant Level Datasets," CEP Discussion Papers dp0653, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    12. James Banks & Richard Disney & Alan Duncan & John Van Reenen, 2005. "The Internationalisation of Public Welfare Policy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(502), pages 62-81, March.
    13. Christopher A. Pissarides & Giovanna Vallanti, 2004. "Productivity Growth and Employment: Theory and Panel Estimates," CEP Discussion Papers dp0663, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Carol Corrado & Paul Lengermann & Larry Slifman, 2009. "The Contribution of Multinational Corporations to US Productivity Growth, 1977–2000," NBER Chapters, in: International Trade in Services and Intangibles in the Era of Globalization, pages 331-360, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Rõigas, Kärt, 2011. "Linkage between productivity and innovation in different service sectors," Discourses in Social Market Economy 2011-02, OrdnungsPolitisches Portal (OPO).
    3. Dietmar Harhoff & Elisabeth Mueller & John Van Reenen, 2014. "What are the Channels for Technology Sourcing? Panel Data Evidence from German Companies," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(1), pages 204-224, March.
    4. Andrea Coveri & Antonello Zanfei, 2023. "Who wins the race for knowledge-based competitiveness? Comparing European and North American FDI patterns," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 292-330, February.
    5. Baldwin, John R. Gu, Wulong, 2005. "Global Links: Multinationals, Foreign Ownership and Productivity Growth in Canadian Manufacturing," The Canadian Economy in Transition 2005009e, Statistics Canada, Economic Analysis Division.
    6. Philipp Harms & Pierre-Guillaume Méon, 2013. "The Growth Effects of Greenfield Investment and Mergers and Acquisitions: Econometric Investigation and Implication for MENA Countries," Working Papers 794, Economic Research Forum, revised Nov 2013.
    7. Luintel, Kul B. & Khan, Mosahid, 2017. "Ideas production and international knowledge spillovers: Digging deeper into emerging countries," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(10), pages 1738-1754.
    8. Andrés Barge‐Gil & Alberto López & Ramón Núñez‐Sánchez, 2020. "Technological spillovers from multinational firms," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(12), pages 3184-3202, December.
    9. Amendolagine, Vito & Prota, Francesco, 2021. "Bilateral investment treaties and backward linkages in Sub-Saharan Africa," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 172-185.
    10. Melo, Patricia C. & Graham, Daniel J. & Noland, Robert B., 2009. "A meta-analysis of estimates of urban agglomeration economies," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 332-342, May.
    11. Doraszelski, Ulrich & Jaumandreu, Jordi, 2006. "R&D and productivity: Estimating production functions when productivity is endogenous," MPRA Paper 1246, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Cozza, Claudio & Perani, Giulio & Zanfei, Antonello, 2016. "Are multinationals better at creating technical linkages with local firms?," Papers in Innovation Studies 2016/14, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    13. Siedschlag Iulia & Kaitila Ville & McQuinn John & Zhang Xiaoheng, 2014. "International Investment and Firm Performance: Empirical Evidence from Small Open Economies," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 234(6), pages 662-687, December.
    14. Nadine Riedel, 2011. "Taxing multi-nationals under union wage bargaining," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 18(4), pages 399-421, August.
    15. Sergey Lychagin & Joris Pinkse & Margaret E. Slade & John Van Reenen, 2016. "Spillovers in Space: Does Geography Matter?," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(2), pages 295-335, June.
    16. Mark Thissen & Narisra Limtanakool & Hans Hilbers, 2011. "Road pricing and agglomeration economies: a new methodology to estimate indirect effects applied to the Netherlands," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 47(3), pages 543-567, December.
    17. Rosa M. González-Marrero & Rosa M. Lorenzo-Alegría & Gustavo A. Marrero, 2011. "Los Efectos Territoriales de las Infraestructuras: La inversión en redes de alta velocidad ferroviaria," Economic Reports 05-2011, FEDEA.
    18. Yang, Zhiwei & Li, Can & Jiao, Jingjuan & Liu, Wei & Zhang, Fangni, 2020. "On the joint impact of high-speed rail and megalopolis policy on regional economic growth in China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 20-30.
    19. Lisa Evers & Helen Miller & Christoph Spengel, 2015. "Intellectual property box regimes: effective tax rates and tax policy considerations," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 22(3), pages 502-530, June.
    20. Maria Börjesson & Jonas Eliasson, 2019. "Should values of time be differentiated?," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(3), pages 357-375, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Entrepreneurship; Occupational Choice; Skills;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups
    • 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

    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:cep:cepdps:dp0665. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/discussion-papers/ .

    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.