Personality Traits, Self-Employment, and Professions

Arbeitspapier

We investigate the effect of broad personality traits - the Big Five - on an individual's decision to become self-employed. In particular, we test an overall indicator of the entrepreneurial personality. Since we find that the level of selfemployment varies considerably across professions, we also perform the analysis for different types of professions, namely, those classified as being in the "creative class" as compared to the noncreative class. The analysis is based on micro data for individuals of the German Socio Economic Panel (SOEP). We find a significant association between personality traits and the propensity be become self-employed. However, the strengthof this link is fairly weak and differs across professions, indicating an important effect of an individual's profession on his or her decision to run an own business.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research ; No. 343

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Entrepreneurship
• Subject: Entrepreneurship ; self-employment ; personality traits ; the Big Five ; professions ; Selbstständige ; Unternehmensgründung ; Persönlichkeitspsychologie ; Beruf ; Schätzung ; Deutschland

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Fritsch, Michael ; Rusakova, Alina
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
• (where): Berlin
• (when): 2010

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/150888
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET