Families, Human Capital, and Small Business: Evidence from the Characteristics of Business Owners Survey

Robert Fairlie and Alicia Robb ()
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Alicia Robb: Foundation for Sustainable Development (FSD)

Yale School of Management Working Papers from Yale School of Management

Abstract: Using data from the confidential and restricted-access Characteristics of Business Owners (CBO) Survey, we provide some suggestive evidence on the causes of intergenerational links in business ownership and the related issue of how having a family business background affects small business outcomes. Estimates from the CBO indicate that more than half of all business owners had a self-employed family member prior to starting their business. Conditional on having a self-employed family member, less than 50 percent of small business owners worked in that family member's business. In contrast, estimates from regression models conditioning on business ownership indicate that having a self-employed family member plays only a minor role in determining small business outcomes, whereas the business human capital acquired from prior work experience in a family member's business appears to be very important for business success. Estimates from the CBO also indicate that only 1.6 percent of all small businesses are inherited suggesting that the role of business inheritances in determining intergenerational links in self-employment is limited at best.

Keywords: Business Outcomes; Self-Employment; Entrepreneurship; Families; Human Capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 M13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004-07-28
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=464243 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Families, Human Capital, and Small Business: Evidence from the Characteristics of Business Owners Survey (2007)
Working Paper: Families, Human Capital, and Small Business: Evidence from the Characteristics of Business Owners Survey (2005)
Working Paper: Families, Human Capital, and Small Business: Evidence from the Characteristics of Business Owners Survey (2005)
Working Paper: Families, Human Capital, and Small Business: Evidence from the Characteristics of Business Owners Survey (2004)
Working Paper: Families, Human Capital, and Small Business: Evidence from the Characteristics of Business Owners Survey (2003)
Working Paper: Families, Human Capital, and Small Business: Evidence from the Characteristics of Business Owners Survey (2003)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ysm:somwrk:ysm435

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