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Dinner Table Human Capital and Entrepreneurship

Author

Listed:
  • Hvide, Hans K.

    (University of Bergen)

  • Oyer, Paul

    (Stanford University)

Abstract

We document three new facts about entrepreneurship. First, a majority of male entrepreneurs start a firm in the same or a closely related industry as their fathers' industry of employment. Second, this tendency is correlated with intelligence: higher-IQ entrepreneurs are less likely to follow their fathers. Third, an entrepreneur that starts a firm in the same 5-digit industry as where his father was employed tends to outperform entrepreneurs in the same industry whose fathers did not work in that industry. We consider various explanations for these facts and conclude that "dinner table human capital", where children obtain industry knowledge through their parents, is an important factor behind what type of firm is started and how well it performs.

Suggested Citation

  • Hvide, Hans K. & Oyer, Paul, 2017. "Dinner Table Human Capital and Entrepreneurship," Research Papers repec:ecl:stabus:3658, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecl:stabus:repec:ecl:stabus:3658
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    2. Vladasel, Theodor & Lindquist, Matthew J. & Sol, Joeri & van Praag, Mirjam, 2021. "On the origins of entrepreneurship: Evidence from sibling correlations," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(5).
    3. Hans K Hvide & Tom G Meling & Tarun Ramadorai, 2023. "Do Temporary Demand Shocks Have Long-Term Effects for Startups?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 36(1), pages 317-350.
    4. Wallskog, Melanie, 2025. "Entrepreneurial spillovers across coworkers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    5. Gerhard Toews & Pierre-Louis Vézina, 2025. "Enemies of the People," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 310-342, January.
    6. Tania Babina & Wenting Ma & Christian Moser & Paige Ouimet & Rebecca Zarutskie, 2019. "Pay, Employment, and Dynamics of Young Firms," Working Papers 19-23, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    7. Ufuk Akcigit & Harun Alp & Jeremy Pearce & Marta Prato, 2025. "Transformative and Subsistence Entrepreneurs: Origins and Impacts on Economic Growth," NBER Working Papers 33766, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Soleimanof, Sohrab & Morris, Michael H. & Jang, Yongseok, 2021. "Following the footsteps that inspire: Parental passion, family communication, and children’s entrepreneurial attitudes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 450-461.
    9. Sascha O Becker & Hans K Hvide, 2022. "Entrepreneur Death and Startup Performance [The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(1), pages 163-185.
    10. Naijia Guo & Charles Ka Yui Leung, 2021. "Do elite colleges matter? The impact on entrepreneurship decisions and career dynamics," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 12(4), pages 1347-1397, November.
    11. Altmejd, Adam, 2023. "Inheritance of fields of study," Working Paper Series 2023:11, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    12. Yiqun Chen & Petra Persson & Maria Polyakova, 2019. "The Roots of Health Inequality and The Value of Intra-Family Expertise," NBER Working Papers 25618, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. 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.
    14. Elizabeth Mishkin, 2021. "Gender and Sibling Dynamics in the Intergenerational Transmission of Entrepreneurship," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(10), pages 6116-6135, October.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship

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