Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/68440 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research No. 533
Publisher: 
Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW), Berlin
Abstract: 
Often, a person will become an entrepreneur only after a period of dependent employment, suggesting that occupational choices precede entrepreneurial choices. We investigate the relationship between occupational choice and self-employment. The findings suggest that the occupational choice of future entrepreneurs at the time of labor market entry is partly guided by a taste for skill variety, the prospect of high earnings, and occupational earnings risk. Entrepreneurial intentions may also emerge after gaining work experience in a chosen occupation. We find that occupations characterized by high levels of unemployment and earnings risk, relatively many job opportunities, and high self-employment rates foster the founding of an own business. Also, people who fail to achieve an occupation-specific income have a tendency for selfemployment.
Subjects: 
entrepreneurial choice
occupation-specific determinants of entrepreneurship
risk preferences
taste for variety
JEL: 
L26
J24
D01
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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