TV and entrepreneurship

Viktor Slavtchev and Michael Wyrwich

No 17/2017, IWH Discussion Papers from Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH)

Abstract: We empirically analyse whether television (TV) can influence entrepreneurial identity and incidence. To identify causal effects, we utilise a quasi-natural experiment setting. During the division of Germany after WWII into West Germany with a free-market economy and the socialistic East Germany with centrally-planned economy, some East German regions had access to West German public TV that - differently from the East German TV - transmitted images, values, attitudes and view of life compatible with the free-market economy principles and supportive of entrepreneurship. We show that during the 40 years of socialistic regime in East Germany entrepreneurship was highly regulated and virtually impossible and that the prevalent formal and informal institutions broke the traditional ties linking entrepreneurship to the characteristics of individuals so that there were hardly any differences in the levels and development of entrepreneurship between East German regions with and without West German TV signal. Using both, regional and individual level data, we show then that, for the period after the Unification in 1990 which made starting an own business in East Germany, possible again, entrepreneurship incidence is higher among the residents of East German regions that had access to West German public TV, indicating that TV can, while transmitting specific images, values, attitudes and view of life, directly impact on the entrepreneurial mindset of individuals. Moreover, we find that young individuals born after 1980 in East German households that had access to West German TV are also more entrepreneurial. These findings point to second-order effects due to inter-personal and inter-generational transmission, a mechanism that can cause persistent differences in the entrepreneurship incidence across (geographically defined) population groups.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; TV; culture; occupational choice; institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D02 D03 J24 L26 M13 O30 P20 P30 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent, nep-his, nep-lma and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Working Paper: TV and Entrepreneurship (2021)
Working Paper: TV and Entrepreneurship (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:172017

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