Spatial variations in intergenerational transmission of self‐employment

Abstract

Niittykangas H. and Tervo H. (2005) Spatial variations in intergenerational transmission of self‐employment, Regional Studies 39 , 319–332. Intergenerational transfers of human and non‐human capital may motivate children to follow their self‐employed parent. This paper analyses occupational inheritance among self‐employed families in Finland. Longitudinal micro data from 1970–99 are exploited. The sample consists of children aged 0–14 years in 1970. The results show that having an entrepreneurial family background strengthens the probability of entering self‐employment. The results confirm the notion of the importance of the local environment for self‐employment. They also offer some evidence for the hypothesis that intergenerational transmission of self‐employment is an explanation for spatial differences in self‐employment.Self‐employment, Intergenerational transfer, Spatial differences, Micro data, Logit analysis, Finland, Travail indépendant, Transmission entre les générations, Variation géographique, Données microéconomiques, Analyse logit, Finlande, Freiberufliche, Tätigkeit, Vererbung von einer, Generation zur andern, Mikrodaten räumlicher, Unterschiede, Logitanalyse, Finnland, Empleo autónomo, Traspaso inter‐generacional, Diferencias espaciales, Datos micro, Análisis logit, Finlandia, JEL classifications: J23, J24, J62, M13,

The nature of self-employment: how does gender matter?

“…For boys, however, this effect is stronger than it is for girls. This result corresponds with earlier Finnish results (Niittykangas and Tervo, 2005). A new result is that a father's effect is greater than a mother's for sons, while the reverse is true for daughters.…”

“…The Finnish results (e.g. Johansson, 2000;Niittykangas and Tervo, 2005) suggest that individuals with a higher level of education have a lower probability of being self-employed. In Finland, more women than men enter higher education.…”

“…Intergenerational transmission in self-employment has been shown to be a strong phenomenon (e.g., Lentz and Laband, 1990;Laferrère and McEntee, 1995;Niittykangas and Tervo, 2005). Children from self-employed families are more likely to perceive such a career as more acceptable than working for someone else.…”

“…Finland, Niittykangas and Tervo (2005) showed that many sons in self-employed families continue in their parent's footsteps, while daughters in these families do not enter the business as often. In addition to this gender difference, the data enable us to investigate whether there are differences between the relative impact of the father and mother: we use two dummies to describe father's and mother's self-employment history.…”

Self-Employment and Geographical Mobility in Germany

“…(e.g., Bönte et al 2009;Katz and Williams 1997;Nijkamp 2003). Econometric studies reveal the importance of the entrepreneurial family background for self-employment (Lohmann and Luber 2004;Niittykangas and Tervo 2005;Shutt and Sutherland 2003;Taylor 1996). People with at least one self-employed parent are more likely to be self-employed, supporting the strong ties hypothesis and the crucial role of close relations to family members for the geography of selfemployment.…”