Are Nascent Entrepreneurs Jacks-of-all-trades? A Test of Lazear's Theory of Entrepreneurship with German Data*

Journal article | Zeitschriftenartikel

Abstract: In a recent paper Edward Lazear proposed the jack-of-all-trades view of entrepreneurship. Based on a coherent model of the choice between self-employment and paid employment he shows that having a background in a large number of different roles increases the probability of becoming an entrepreneur. The intuition behind this proposition is that entrepreneurs must have sufficient knowledge in a variety of areas to put together the many ingredients needed for survival and success in a business, while for paid employees it suffices and pays to be a specialist in the field demanded by the job taken. This paper contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by empirically testing Lazear's hypothesis using a large recent representative sample of the German population. The empirical estimation takes the rare events nature of becoming a nascent entrepreneur and the regional stratification of the sample into account. The results illustrate the statistical significance and economic importance of the jack-of-all-trades theory.

Object Details

• Extent: Seite(n): 2415-2419
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Status: Postprint; begutachtet (peer reviewed)

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Applied Economics, 38(20)

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Wagner, Joachim
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (when): 2006

Further information

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00036840500427783
• URN: urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-239384
• Rights: GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften. Bibliothek Köln
• Last update: 21.06.2024, 4:27 PM CEST