[go: up one dir, main page]
More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/faulre/75.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Are the self-employed really jacks-of-all-trades? Testing the assumptions and implications of Lazear's theory of entrepreneurship with German data

Author

Listed:
  • Lechmann, Daniel S. J.
  • Schnabel, Claus
Abstract
Using a large representative German data set and various concepts of self-employment, this paper tests the 'jack-of-all-trades' view of entrepreneurship by Lazear (AER 2004). Consistent with its theoretical assumptions we find that self-employed individuals perform more tasks and that their work requires more skills than that of paid employees. In contrast to Lazear's assumptions, however, self-employed individuals do not just need more basic but also more expert skills than employees. Our results also provide only very limited support for the idea that human capital investment patterns differ between those who become self-employed and those ending up in paid employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Lechmann, Daniel S. J. & Schnabel, Claus, 2011. "Are the self-employed really jacks-of-all-trades? Testing the assumptions and implications of Lazear's theory of entrepreneurship with German data," Discussion Papers 75, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:faulre:75
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/55037/1/684381036.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Stuetzer & Martin Obschonka & Eva Schmitt-Rodermund, 2013. "Balanced skills among nascent entrepreneurs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 93-114, June.
    2. Joachim Wagner, 2006. "Are nascent entrepreneurs 'Jacks-of-all-trades'? A test of Lazear's theory of entrepreneurship with German data," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(20), pages 2415-2419.
    3. Oliver Hart, 2011. "Thinking about the Firm: A Review of Daniel Spulber's The Theory of the Firm," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(1), pages 101-113, March.
    4. de Wit, Gerrit, 1993. "Models of Self-Employment in a Competitive Market," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(4), pages 367-397, December.
    5. Ari Hyytinen & Pekka Ilmakunnas, 2007. "What distinguishes a serial entrepreneur?," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 16(5), pages 793-821, October.
    6. Leon Schjoedt, 2009. "Entrepreneurial Job Characteristics: An Examination of Their Effect on Entrepreneurial Satisfaction1," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 33(3), pages 619-644, May.
    7. Joop Hartog & Mirjam Van Praag & Justin Van Der Sluis, 2010. "If You Are So Smart, Why Aren't You an Entrepreneur? Returns to Cognitive and Social Ability: Entrepreneurs Versus Employees," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(4), pages 947-989, December.
    8. Oliver Hart & John Moore, 2005. "On the Design of Hierarchies: Coordination versus Specialization," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(4), pages 675-702, August.
    9. Blanchflower, David G & Oswald, Andrew J, 1998. "What Makes an Entrepreneur?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(1), pages 26-60, January.
    10. Edward P. Lazear, 2004. "Balanced Skills and Entrepreneurship," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(2), pages 208-211, May.
    11. Kanbur, S M, 1979. "Of Risk Taking and the Personal Distribution of Income," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(4), pages 769-797, August.
    12. Matthias Benz, "undated". "Entrepreneurship as a non-profit-seeking activity," IEW - Working Papers 243, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    13. Chihmao Hsieh & Simon C. Parker & C. Mirjam Praag, 2017. "Risk, balanced skills and entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 287-302, February.
    14. Jolanda Hessels & U. Brixy & Wim Naudé & Thomas Gries, 2014. "Skill Variety, Innovation and New Business Formation," Scales Research Reports H201013, EIM Business and Policy Research.
    15. Kevin M. Murphy & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1991. "The Allocation of Talent: Implications for Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 503-530.
    16. Parker,Simon C., 2009. "The Economics of Entrepreneurship," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521728355, March.
    17. Marco Caliendo & Frank Fossen & Alexander Kritikos, 2014. "Personality characteristics and the decisions to become and stay self-employed," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(4), pages 787-814, April.
    18. Åstebro, Thomas & Thompson, Peter, 2011. "Entrepreneurs, Jacks of all trades or Hobos?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 637-649, June.
    19. Kihlstrom, Richard E & Laffont, Jean-Jacques, 1979. "A General Equilibrium Entrepreneurial Theory of Firm Formation Based on Risk Aversion," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(4), pages 719-748, August.
    20. Daniel W. Elfenbein & Barton H. Hamilton & Todd R. Zenger, 2010. "The Small Firm Effect and the Entrepreneurial Spawning of Scientists and Engineers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(4), pages 659-681, April.
    21. Silva, Olmo, 2007. "The Jack-of-All-Trades entrepreneur: Innate talent or acquired skill?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 118-123, November.
    22. David G. Blanchflower, 2004. "Self-Employment: More may not be better," NBER Working Papers 10286, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. J. Wagner, 2003. "Testing Lazear's jack-of-all-trades view of entrepreneurship with German micro data," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(11), pages 687-689.
    24. Helsley, Robert W. & Strange, William C., 2011. "Entrepreneurs and cities: Complexity, thickness and balance," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 550-559.
    25. John Schmitt & Nathan Lane, 2009. "An International Comparison of Small Business Employment," CEPR Reports and Issue Briefs 2009-27, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).
    26. Darren Filson & April Franco, 2000. "Knowledge diffusion through employee mobility," Staff Report 272, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    27. April Mitchell Franco & Darren Filson, 2006. "Spin‐outs: knowledge diffusion through employee mobility," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(4), pages 841-860, December.
    28. Bengt Holmstrom & John Roberts, 1998. "The Boundaries of the Firm Revisited," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 73-94, Fall.
    29. Elisabeth Bublitz & Florian Noseleit, 2011. "The Skill Balancing Act: Determinants of and Returns to Balanced Skills," Jena Economics Research Papers 2011-025, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    30. Dirk Oberschachtsiek, 2012. "The experience of the founder and self-employment duration: a comparative advantage approach," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 1-17, July.
    31. April Mitchell Franco & Darren Filson, 2006. "Spin‐outs: knowledge diffusion through employee mobility," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 37(4), pages 841-860, December.
    32. Uschi Backes-Gellner & Petra Moog, 2007. "Who chooses to become an entrepreneur? The Jacks-of-all-Trades in Social and Human Capital," Working Papers 0076, University of Zurich, Institute for Strategy and Business Economics (ISU).
    33. Robert E. Lucas Jr., 1978. "On the Size Distribution of Business Firms," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 9(2), pages 508-523, Autumn.
    34. Parker,Simon C., 2009. "The Economics of Entrepreneurship," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521899604, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Krieger, Alexander & Block, Joern & Stuetzer, Michael, 2018. "Skill variety in entrepreneurship: A literature review and research directions," MPRA Paper 88389, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Nadia Simoes & Nuno Crespo & Sandrina B. Moreira, 2016. "Individual Determinants Of Self-Employment Entry: What Do We Really Know?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 783-806, September.
    3. Alina Sorgner & Michael Fritsch, 2013. "Occupational Choice and Self-Employment: Are They Related?," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 533, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    4. Elisabeth Bublitz & Michael Fritsch & Michael Wyrwich, 2015. "Balanced Skills and the City: An Analysis of the Relationship between Entrepreneurial Skill Balance, Thickness, and Innovation," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 91(4), pages 475-508, October.
    5. Jolanda Hessels & Udo Brixy & Wim Naudé & Thomas Gries, 2014. "Skill Variety, Innovation and New Business Formation," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 14-011/VII, Tinbergen Institute.
    6. Silke Tegtmeier & Agnieszka Kurczewska & Jantje Halberstadt, 2016. "Are women graduates jacquelines-of-all-trades? Challenging Lazear’s view on entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 77-94, June.
    7. Rosendahl Huber, Laura & Sloof, Randolph & van Praag, Mirjam C., 2014. "Jacks-of-All-Trades? The Effect of Balanced Skills on Team Performance," IZA Discussion Papers 8237, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Hårsman, Björn & Mattsson, Lars-Göran, 2017. "Resolving the entrepreneurship puzzle: Applying Fréchet distributions to Lazear’s occupational choice model," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 458, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, revised 22 Feb 2018.
    9. Li-Wei Chen & Peter Thompson, 2016. "Skill Balance and Entrepreneurship Evidence from Online Career Histories," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(2), pages 289-305, March.
    10. Elisabeth Bublitz & Florian Noseleit, 2014. "The skill balancing act: when does broad expertise pay off?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 17-32, January.
    11. Hårsman, Björn & Mattsson, Lars-Göran, 2019. "Reconsidering the returns to entrepreneurship: Applying a modified version of Lazear’s occupational choice model," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 478, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    12. Thomas Ã…stebro & Kevyn Yong, 2016. "Invention Quality and Entrepreneurial Earnings: The Role of Prior Employment Variety," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(2), pages 381-400, March.
    13. Michael Stuetzer & Martin Obschonka & Eva Schmitt-Rodermund, 2013. "Balanced skills among nascent entrepreneurs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 93-114, June.
    14. Pankaj C. Patel & Yoav Ganzach, 2019. "Returns to balance in cognitive skills for the self-employed: evidence from 18 countries," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 89-109, January.
    15. Daniel S. J. Lechmann, 2015. "Can working conditions explain the return-to-entrepreneurship puzzle? [Können Arbeitsbedingungen das „return-to-entrepreneurship puzzle“ erklären?]," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 48(4), pages 271-286, December.
    16. Ross Levine & Yona Rubinstein, 2018. "Selection into Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment," NBER Working Papers 25350, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Mirjam Praag & André Stel, 2013. "The more business owners, the merrier? The role of tertiary education," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 41(2), pages 335-357, August.
    18. Alina Sorgner & Michael Fritsch, 2018. "Entrepreneurial career paths: occupational context and the propensity to become self-employed," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 129-152, June.
    19. Aloña Martiarena, 2013. "What’s so entrepreneurial about intrapreneurs?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 27-39, January.
    20. Fairlie, Robert W. & Holleran, William, 2012. "Entrepreneurship training, risk aversion and other personality traits: Evidence from a random experiment," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 366-378.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    entrepreneurship; self-employed; Germany;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:faulre:75. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vierlde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.