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Demographics and Entrepreneurship

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Listed:
  • Edward Lazear

    () (Stanford University)

  • James Liang

    () (Peking University)

  • Hui Wang

    () (Peking University)

Abstract

Entrepreneurship requires creativity and business acumen. Creativity may decline with age, but business skills increase with experience in high level positions. Having too many older workers in society slows entrepreneurship. Not only are older workers less innovative, but more significant is that when older workers occupy key positions they block younger workers from acquiring business skills. A formal theoretical structure is presented and tested using the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data. The results imply that a one-standard deviation decrease in the median age of a country increases the rate of new business formation by 2.5 percentage points, which is about forty percent of the mean rate. Furthermore, older societies have lower rates of entrepreneurship at every age.

Suggested Citation

  • Edward Lazear & James Liang & Hui Wang, 2014. "Demographics and Entrepreneurship," Discussion Papers 14-003, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:sip:dpaper:14-003
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Le vieillissement démographique étouffe l'entrepreneuriat
      by ? in D'un champ l'autre on 2014-09-25 23:47:00

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    Cited by:

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    3. Schön, Matthias & Stähler, Nikolai, 2020. "When old meets young? Germany's population ageing and the current account," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 315-336.
    4. Drautzburg, Thorsten, 2019. "Entrepreneurial tail risk: Implications for employment dynamics," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 85-100.
    5. Shai Bernstein & Emanuele Colonnelli & Davide Malacrino & Timothy McQuade, 2018. "Who Creates New Firms When Local Opportunities Arise?," NBER Working Papers 25112, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Federico Barbiellini & Matteo Gomellini & Lorenzon Incoronato & Paolo Piselli, 2020. "The Age-Productivity Profile:Long-Run Evidence from Italian Regions," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 2019, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London.
    7. Luc Laeven & Alexander Popov, 2017. "Waking Up from the American Dream: On the Experience of Young Americans during the Housing Boom of the 2000s," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 49(5), pages 861-895, August.
    8. Naudé, Wim, 2019. "The decline in entrepreneurship in the West: Is complexity ossifying the economy?," MERIT Working Papers 2019-030, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    9. Crecente-Romero, Fernando & Giménez-Baldazo, Mónica & Rivera-Galicia, Luis F., 2016. "Subjective perception of entrepreneurship. Differences among countries," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 5158-5162.
    10. Röhe, Oke & Stähler, Nikolai, 2020. "Demographics and the decline in firm entry: Lessons from a life-cycle model," Discussion Papers 15/2020, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    11. Jie Chen & Mingzhi Hu, 2019. "What types of homeowners are more likely to be entrepreneurs? The evidence from China," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 633-649, March.
    12. Cowling, Marc & Millán, José María & Yue, Wei, 2019. "Two decades of European self-employment: Is the answer to who becomes self-employed different over time and countries?," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 12(C).
    13. Richard Fabling, 2018. "Entrepreneurial beginnings: Transitions to self-employment and the creation of jobs," Working Papers 18_12, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    14. Keane, M.P. & Thorp, S., 2016. "Complex Decision Making," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 661-709, Elsevier.
    15. Massimo Anelli & Gaetano Basso & Giuseppe Ippedico & Giovanni Peri, 2019. "Youth Drain Entrepreneurship and Innovation," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1240, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    16. Sergio Salgado, 2019. "Technical Change and Entrepreneurship," 2019 Meeting Papers 634, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    17. José Alberto Molina, 2020. "Family and Entrepreneurship: New Empirical and Theoretical Results," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 1-3, March.
    18. Dantas Guimarães, Silvana & Ferreira Tiryaki, Gisele, 2020. "The impact of population aging on business cycles volatility: International evidence," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    19. Shutao Cao & Mohanad Salameh & Mai Seki & Pierre St-Amant, 2017. "Trends in Firm Entry and New Entrepreneurship in Canada," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 43(3), pages 202-220, September.
    20. Francesco D’Acunto & Geoffrey Tate & Liu Yang, 2020. "Entrepreneurial Teams: Diversity of Skills and Early-Stage Growth," Working Papers 20-45, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    21. Ljunge, Martin & Stenkula, Mikael, 2020. "Fertile Soil for Intrapreneurship: Impartial Institutions and Human Capital," Working Paper Series 1368, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    22. Stähler, Nikolai, 2020. "The impact of aging and automation on the macroeconomy and inequality," Discussion Papers 30/2020, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    23. Hu, Mingzhi & Su, Yinxin & Ye, Wenping, 2019. "Promoting or inhibiting: The role of housing price in entrepreneurship," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    24. Tomoaki Kotera, 2020. "Sustainability of Social Security in the Aging Economy from the Perspective of Improving Health," IMES Discussion Paper Series 20-E-12, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • M51 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions

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