The shadows of the past: how implicit institutions influence entrepreneurship

Arbeitspapier

This paper investigates the impact of implicit institutions on the decision to become an entrepreneur. Implicit institutions are here defined as mindsets that have developed as the result of norms and traditions and we expect they will have an influence on risk attitudes and opportunity recognition. We conduct a natural experiment based on Germany’s recent history and compare individuals born and raised in the former socialist East Germany (GDR) with their West Germany (FRG) counterparts. Our analysis confirms the expected difference in values between individuals from East and West Germany and also shows that these differences influence the probability of being self-employed. In the process of our analysis, we also sketch the ongoing economical transition process in East Germany, which severely disturbs a proper analysis of the institutional differences from a macro-perspective.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Jena Economic Research Papers ; No. 2009,044

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Entrepreneurship ; Relation of Economics to Social Values ; Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions: Other
• Subject: Implicit Institutions ; Entrepreneurship ; Socialism ; Capitalism ; Unternehmer ; Selbstständige ; Berufswahl ; Soziale Werte ; Institutionelle Infrastruktur ; Übergangswirtschaft ; Neue Bundesländer ; Vergleich ; Alte Bundesländer ; Deutschland

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Bauernschuster, Stefan ; Falck, Oliver ; Gold, Robert ; Heblich, Stephan
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Max Planck Institute of Economics
• (where): Jena
• (when): 2009

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/31791
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET