Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/250555 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 14894
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We study the origins of entrepreneurship (culture) in the United States. For the analysis we make use of a quasi-natural experiment – the gold rush in the second part of the 19th century. We argue that the presence of gold attracted individuals with entrepreneurial personality traits. Due to a genetic founder effect and the formation of an entrepreneurship culture, we expect gold rush counties to have higher entrepreneurship rates. The analysis shows that gold rush counties indeed have higher entrepreneurship rates from 1910, when records began, until the present as well as a higher prevalence of entrepreneurial traits in the populace.
Subjects: 
gold rush
entrepreneurship
culture
JEL: 
L26
R12
N5
N9
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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