Entrepreneurial Success and Occupational Inheritance among Proprietors

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“…Entrepreneurial parents may become role models for those students [Chlosta et al, 2012]. Also, people who come from a business-owning family tend to possess a higher quality of human capital due to the experience, knowledge, and skills necessary for running a business picked up from their parents, among other things, by participating in the management of the family firm [Lentz, Laband, 1990;Mueller, 2006]. Such students often feel more confident moving from entrepreneurial aspirations to action, which ultimately increases the likelihood of their creating a new company [Shirokova et al, 2015b].…”

Intergenerational Transmission of Self-Employed Status in the Informal Sector: A Constrained Choice or Better Income Prospects? Evidence from Seven West African Countries

“…To my knowledge, only two studies aim at understanding the impact of familial background on small business outcomes (Lentz andLaband 1990, Fairlie andRobb 2007b). Both relate to the USA.…”

“…However, very few studies document the reasons for this high intergenerational correlation of the self-employed status. The rare studies deal with data from developed countries and show that having a self-employed father provide an advantage in terms of earning exepcted (Dunn and Holt-Eakin 2000, Lentz and Laband 1990, Fairlie and Robb 2007a2007b, Colombier and Masclet 20062008, Laferrère and McEntee 1996. In the context of developing countries, the high correlation across generations of the self-employed status raises the following question: Do the children of self-employed become themselves self-employed because they have an advantage relatively to the children of wage earner?…”

Nepotism, incentives and the academic success of college students

“…The occupational and educational choices of the parents may have far-reaching effects not only on their own lives but also on future generations. For instance, the children of self-employed fathers are more likely to become self-employed (e.g., Lentz and Laband [1990], Dunn and Holtz-Eakin [2000] an Hout and Rosen [2000]). …”

“…2 Lentz and Laband (1990) distinguish between the general occupational skills acquired via college education and job-specific skills or managerial human capital acquired by experience. Lazear (2004) finds that among Stanford MBA alumni, the entrepreneurs study a more varied curriculum in the program compared to those who work as employees.…”