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How Wealth and Age Interact to Affect Entrepreneurship

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Abstract

Using wealth windfalls from lottery winnings and matched employer-employee tax files, we compare the effect of additional wealth on the entrepreneurial activity of older and younger individuals. We find that additional wealth leads older winners (aged 55 and older) to reduce business ownership and scale. In contrast, additional wealth leads younger winners to increase business ownership and performance. We also show that extra lottery wealth reduces the wage labor supply of both younger and older individuals. Thus, while younger lottery winners reduce wage labor to increase entrepreneurship, older lottery winners reduce both wage labor and entrepreneurship to retire

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  • Philippe d’Astous & Vyacheslav Mikhed & Sahil Raina & Barry Scholnick, 2025. "How Wealth and Age Interact to Affect Entrepreneurship," Working Papers 25-03, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedpwp:99482
    DOI: 10.21799/frbp.wp.2025.03
    Note: Superseded by WP23-32: The Opposing Effects of Wealth on Younger and Older Entrepreneurs
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • G5 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance
    • G51 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Household Savings, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship

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