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Wealth, tastes, and entrepreneurial choice

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  • Erik Hurst
  • Benjamin Pugsley

Abstract

The nonpecuniary benefits of managing a small business are a first order consideration for many nascent entrepreneurs, yet the preference for business ownership is mostly ignored in models of entrepreneurship and occupational choice. In this paper, we study a population with varying entrepreneurial tastes and wealth in a simple general equilibrium model of occupational choice. This choice yields several important results: (1) entrepreneurship can be thought of as a normal good, generating wealth effects independent of any financing constraints; (2) nonpecuniary entrepreneurs select into small-scale firms; and (3) subsidies designed to stimulate more business entry can have regressive distributional effects. Despite abstracting from other important considerations such as risk, financing constraints, and innovation, we show that nonpecuniary compensation is particularly relevant in discussions of small businesses.

Suggested Citation

  • Erik Hurst & Benjamin Pugsley, 2015. "Wealth, tastes, and entrepreneurial choice," Staff Reports 747, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fednsr:747
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. J. David Brown & John S. Earle & Mee Jung Kim & Kyung Min Lee, 2017. "High-Growth Entrepreneurship," Working Papers 17-53, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    2. Decker, Ryan A. & Haltiwanger, John & Jarmin, Ron S. & Miranda, Javier, 2016. "Where has all the skewness gone? The decline in high-growth (young) firms in the U.S," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 4-23.
    3. Michael Anyadike-Danes & Mark Hart, 2018. "All grown up? The fate after 15 years of a quarter of a million UK firms born in 1998," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 45-76, January.
    4. Anmol Bhandari & Ellen R. McGrattan, 2017. "Sweat Equity in U.S. Private Business," Staff Report 560, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    5. Ross Levine & Yona Rubinstein, 2018. "Selection into Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment," NBER Working Papers 25350, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. McCain, Roger, 2016. "Small Business and Liquidity Constraint," School of Economics Working Paper Series 2016-3, LeBow College of Business, Drexel University.
    7. Pawel Adrjan, 2018. "Risky Business? Earnings Prospects of Employees at Young Firms," Economics Series Working Papers 852, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    8. Kankanamge, Sumudu & Gaillard, Alexandre, 2020. "Buying and Selling Entrepreneurial Assets," TSE Working Papers 20-1078, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    9. Harding, John P. & Rosenthal, Stuart S., 2017. "Homeownership, housing capital gains and self-employment," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 120-135.
    10. Bulent Unel, 2018. "Effects of Immigration on Native Entrepreneurship in the U.S," Departmental Working Papers 2018-01, Department of Economics, Louisiana State University.
    11. Bergner, Sören Martin & Bräutigam, Rainer & Evers, Maria Theresia & Spengel, Christoph, 2017. "The use of SME tax incentives in the European Union," ZEW Discussion Papers 17-006, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    12. Sumudu Kankanamge & Alexandre Gaillard, 2019. "Entrepreneurship, Inter-Generational Business Transmission and Aging," 2019 Meeting Papers 1503, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    13. Caliendo, Marco & Tübbicke, Stefan, 2019. "Do Start-Up Subsidies for the Unemployed Affect Participants' Well-Being? A Rigorous Look at (Un-)Intended Consequences of Labor Market Policies," IZA Discussion Papers 12755, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Lucia Foster & Cheryl Grim & John C. Haltiwanger & Zoltan Wolf, 2019. "Innovation, Productivity Dispersion, and Productivity Growth," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring and Accounting for Innovation in the Twenty-First Century, pages 103-136, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. de Meza, David & Dawson, Christopher & Henley, Andrew & Arabsheibani, G. Reza, 2019. "Curb your enthusiasm: Optimistic entrepreneurs earn less," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 53-69.
    16. John Bailey Jones & Sangeeta Pratap, 2020. "An Estimated Structural Model of Entrepreneurial Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(9), pages 2859-2898, September.
    17. Joonkyu Choi, 2018. "Entrepreneurial Risk-Taking, Young Firm Dynamics, and Aggregate Implications," 2018 Meeting Papers 1018, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    18. Katharina Erhardt & Simon Haenni, 2018. "Born to be an entrepreneur? How cultural origin affects entrepreneurship," ECON - Working Papers 309, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    19. Sari Pekkala Kerr & William R. Kerr & Tina Xu, 2017. "Personality Traits of Entrepreneurs: A Review of Recent Literature," NBER Working Papers 24097, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Gendron-Carrier, Nicolas, 2023. "Prior Work Experience and Entrepreneurship: The Careers of Young Entrepreneurs," IZA Discussion Papers 16145, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    21. Sabrina T. Howell, 2017. "Reducing Information Frictions in Venture Capital: The Role of New Venture Competitions," NBER Working Papers 23874, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    non-pecuniary benefits; entrepreneurship;

    JEL classification:

    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General
    • L20 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - General

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