Self-employment after socialism: Intergenerational links, entrepreneurial values, and human capital

Arbeitspapier

Drawing on representative household data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we examine the role of an early precursor of entrepreneurial development - parental role models - for the individual decision to become self-employed in the post-unified Germany. The findings suggest that the socialist regime significantly damaged this mechanism of an intergenerational transmission of entrepreneurial attitudes among East Germans with a tertiary degree that have experienced a particularly strong ideological indoctrination. However, we find a significant and positive relationship between the presence of a parental role model and the decision to become self-employed for less-educated people. For West Germans the positive relationship holds irrespective of the level of education.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research ; No. 456

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Entrepreneurship
• Subject: entrepreneurship ; parental role models ; human capital

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Fritsch, Michael ; Rusakova, Alina
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
• (where): Berlin
• (when): 2012

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/60191
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET