Wired in? Genetic traits and entrepreneurship around the world

Sorin Krammer and Erkan Gören

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Entrepreneurship is a cornerstone of technological innovation and economic development. We posit that the genetic make-up of countries (populations) will affect the extent of their engagement in entrepreneurial activities, in addition to the factors showcased by prior literature (e.g., institutions, culture, socio-economic, demographic, or historical). To test this conjecture we employ a country-level genetic measure that is commonly associated with novelty- and risk- seeking behaviours using the frequency of the 2- and 7-repeat allele variants of the DRD4 exon III gene. Our results confirm a systematic, positive association between genetics and entrepreneurial activities across 97 countries using a large set of controls and battery of robustness tests. These findings reconcile the “nature versus nurture” debate with respect to entrepreneurial activities around the world and provide some valuable insights on the significance of different determinants of entrepreneurship.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Genetic Diversity; Novelty-Seeking; DRD4 Exon III (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D02 L26 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-04-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent, nep-gro, nep-ino and nep-sbm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Journal Article: Wired in? Genetic traits and entrepreneurship around the world (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:107309

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