Gender Differences in Entrepreneurial Choice and Risk Aversion - A Decomposition Based on a Microeconometric Model

Frank Fossen

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Abstract: Why are female entrepreneurs so rare? In Germany, women exhibit both a lower entry rate into and higher exit rate from self-employment. To explain this gender gap, this study estimates a structural microeconometric model of transition rates that includes a standard risk aversion parameter. Inputs into the model are the expected value and variance of earnings from self-employment and dependent employment, estimated separately by gender and accounting for nonrandom selection into self-employment. The gender differential in the transition rates is decomposed using a novel extension of the Blinder-Oaxaca technique for nonlinear models. Women's higher estimated risk aversion explains the largest part of their higher exit rate but only a small portion of their lower entry rate.

Keywords: Social; Sciences; &; Humanities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-03-28
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-00683162v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in Applied Economics, 2011, pp.1. ⟨10.1080/00036846.2011.554377⟩

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Related works:
Journal Article: Gender differences in entrepreneurial choice and risk aversion -- a decomposition based on a microeconometric model (2012)
Working Paper: Gender Differences in Entrepreneurial Choice and Risk Aversion: A Decomposition Based on a Microeconometric Model (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00683162

DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2011.554377

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