Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mar/magkse/201628.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Steve Jobs or No Jobs? Entrepreneurial activity and performance among Danish college dropouts and graduates

Author

Listed:
  • Guido Buenstorf

    (University of Kassel)

  • Kristian Nielsen

    (Aalborg University)

  • Bram Timmermans

    (Norwegian School of Economics)

Abstract
Are college dropouts successful entrepreneurs? Other than anecdotal evidence on illustrious college dropouts who managed to become self-made billionaires, there is only limited empirical evidence to answer this question. This paper addresses this issue by investigating the relationship between college dropout or graduation and entrepreneurship activity as well as performance. Using information from the Danish labor market register, we identify college students, whether these students graduate, and if they registered a new venture. We find that a larger share of dropouts starts a business, but this reflects the endogeneity of the decision to exit from college. On average, becoming an entrepreneur does not allow dropouts to escape from their punishment in the labor market.

Suggested Citation

  • Guido Buenstorf & Kristian Nielsen & Bram Timmermans, 2016. "Steve Jobs or No Jobs? Entrepreneurial activity and performance among Danish college dropouts and graduates," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201628, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    • Handle: RePEc:mar:magkse:201628
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.uni-marburg.de/fb02/makro/forschung/magkspapers/paper_2016/28-2016_buenstorf.pdf
    File Function: First 201628
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Deniz Ucbasaran & Paul Westhead & Mike Wright, 2008. "Opportunity Identification and Pursuit: Does an Entrepreneur’s Human Capital Matter?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 153-173, February.
    2. Cassar, Gavin, 2006. "Entrepreneur opportunity costs and intended venture growth," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 610-632, September.
    3. 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.
    4. Joern H. Block & Marcus Wagner, 2010. "Necessity and Opportunity Entrepreneurs in Germany: Characteristics and Earning s Differentials," Schmalenbach Business Review (sbr), LMU Munich School of Management, vol. 62(2), pages 154-174, April.
    5. Parker, Simon C. & van Praag, C. Mirjam, 2006. "Schooling, Capital Constraints, and Entrepreneurial Performance: The Endogenous Triangle," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 24, pages 416-431, October.
    6. Mirjam Praag & Arjen van Witteloostuijn & Justin van der Sluis, 2013. "The higher returns to formal education for entrepreneurs versus employees," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 375-396, February.
    7. Fossen, Frank M. & Büttner, Tobias J.M., 2013. "The returns to education for opportunity entrepreneurs, necessity entrepreneurs, and paid employees," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 66-84.
    8. Elert, Niklas & Andersson, Fredrik W. & Wennberg, Karl, 2015. "The impact of entrepreneurship education in high school on long-term entrepreneurial performance," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 209-223.
    9. Arndt Werner, 2011. "Do credit constraints matter more for college dropout entrepreneurs?," International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 14(2/3), pages 190-205.
    10. Åstebro, Thomas & Thompson, Peter, 2011. "Entrepreneurs, Jacks of all trades or Hobos?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 637-649, June.
    11. Hsu, David H., 2007. "Experienced entrepreneurial founders, organizational capital, and venture capital funding," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 722-741, June.
    12. Cumming, Douglas (ed.), 2012. "The Oxford Handbook of Entrepreneurial Finance," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195391244.
    13. Davidsson, Per & Honig, Benson, 2003. "The role of social and human capital among nascent entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 301-331, May.
    14. Robinson, Peter B. & Sexton, Edwin A., 1994. "The effect of education and experience on self-employment success," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 141-156, March.
    15. Justin Van Der Sluis & Mirjam Van Praag & Wim Vijverberg, 2008. "Education And Entrepreneurship Selection And Performance: A Review Of The Empirical Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 795-841, December.
    16. Åstebro, Thomas & Bazzazian, Navid & Braguinsky, Serguey, 2012. "Startups by recent university graduates and their faculty: Implications for university entrepreneurship policy," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 663-677.
    17. Bates, Timothy, 1990. "Entrepreneur Human Capital Inputs and Small Business Longevity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(4), pages 551-559, November.
    18. Nicolaou, Nicos & Shane, Scott, 2010. "Entrepreneurship and occupational choice: Genetic and environmental influences," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(1), pages 3-14, October.
    19. Lofstrom, Magnus & Bates, Timothy & Parker, Simon C., 2014. "Why are some people more likely to become small-businesses owners than others: Entrepreneurship entry and industry-specific barriers," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 232-251.
    20. Serguey Braguinsky & Steven Klepper & Atsushi Ohyama, 2012. "High-Tech Entrepreneurship," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(4), pages 869-900.
    21. Kane, Thomas J & Rouse, Cecilia Elena, 1995. "Labor-Market Returns to Two- and Four-Year College," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(3), pages 600-614, June.
    22. Unger, Jens M. & Rauch, Andreas & Frese, Michael & Rosenbusch, Nina, 2011. "Human capital and entrepreneurial success: A meta-analytical review," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 341-358, May.
    23. Matthew J. Lindquist & Joeri Sol & Mirjam Van Praag, 2015. "Why Do Entrepreneurial Parents Have Entrepreneurial Children?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(2), pages 269-296.
    24. Nicos Nicolaou & Scott Shane, 2010. "Entrepreneurship And Occupational Choice: Genetic And Environmental Influences," Post-Print hal-00856601, HAL.
    25. Taylor, Mark P, 1996. "Earnings, Independence or Unemployment: Why Become Self-Employed?," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 58(2), pages 253-266, May.
    26. Colombo, Massimo G. & Grilli, Luca, 2005. "Founders' human capital and the growth of new technology-based firms: A competence-based view," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 795-816, August.
    27. Phillip Kim & Howard Aldrich & Lisa Keister, 2006. "Access (Not) Denied: The Impact of Financial, Human, and Cultural Capital on Entrepreneurial Entryin the United States," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 5-22, August.
    28. Parker,Simon C., 2006. "The Economics of Self-Employment and Entrepreneurship," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521030632, October.
    29. Thomas Astebro & Irwin Bernhardt, 1999. "The Winner's Curse of Human Capital," Working Papers 99-5, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    30. Bram Timmermans, 2010. "The Danish Integrated Database for Labor Market Research: Towards Demystification for the English Speaking Audience," DRUID Working Papers 10-16, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    31. Thomas Åstbro & Irwin Bernhardt, 2005. "The Winner’s Curse of Human Capital," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 63-78, February.
    32. Kristian Nielsen, 2015. "Human capital and new venture performance: the industry choice and performance of academic entrepreneurs," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 453-474, June.
    33. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    34. Barton H. Hamilton, 2000. "Does Entrepreneurship Pay? An Empirical Analysis of the Returns to Self-Employment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(3), pages 604-631, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tuğberk Kaya & Burak Erkut & Nadine Thierbach, 2019. "Entrepreneurial Intentions of Business and Economics Students in Germany and Cyprus: A Cross-Cultural Comparison," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-18, March.
    2. Kunwon Ahn & John V. Winters, 2023. "Does education enhance entrepreneurship?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 717-743, August.
    3. Jing Jian Xiao & Nilton Porto & Irene McIvor Mason, 2020. "Financial capability of student loan holders who are college students, graduates, or dropouts," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 1383-1401, December.

    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. Kunwon Ahn & John V. Winters, 2023. "Does education enhance entrepreneurship?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 717-743, August.
    2. Jose Maria Millan & Emilio Congregado & Concepcion Roman & Mirjam van Praag & Andre van Stel, 2011. "The Value of an Educated Population for an Individual's Entrepreneurship Success," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 11-066/3, Tinbergen Institute, revised 06 May 2014.
    3. Honjo, Yuji, 2021. "The impact of founders’ human capital on initial capital structure: Evidence from Japan," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    4. Mirjam van Praag & Arjen van Witteloostuijn & Justin van der Sluis, 2009. "Returns for Entrepreneurs versus Employees: The Effect of Education and Personal Control on the Relative Performance of Entrepreneurs vis-a-vis Wage Employees," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 09-111/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    5. Colombo, Massimo G. & Piva, Evila, 2020. "Start-ups launched by recent STEM university graduates: The impact of university education on entrepreneurial entry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(6).
    6. Andrea Asoni & Tino Sanandaji, 2016. "Identifying the effect of college education on business and employment survival," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 311-324, February.
    7. Masatoshi Kato, 2017. "Founders’ human capital and external knowledge sourcing: An absorptive capacity perspective for innovative start-ups," Discussion Paper Series 162, School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University, revised Jun 2017.
    8. Klyver, Kim & Steffens, Paul & Lomberg, Carina, 2020. "Having your cake and eating it too? A two-stage model of the impact of employment and parallel job search on hybrid nascent entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(5).
    9. van Praag, Mirjam C. & van Witteloostuijn, Arjen & van der Sluis, Justin, 2009. "Returns for Entrepreneurs vs. Employees: The Effect of Education and Personal Control on the Relative Performance of Entrepreneurs vs. Wage Employees," IZA Discussion Papers 4628, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Honjo, Yuji & Kwak, Charee & Uchida, Hirofumi, 2022. "Initial funding and founders’ human capital: An empirical analysis using multiple surveys for start-up firms," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    11. Hu, Feng, 2015. "Return to Education for China’s Return Migrant Entrepreneurs," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 296-307.
    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. Fossen, Frank M. & Büttner, Tobias J.M., 2013. "The returns to education for opportunity entrepreneurs, necessity entrepreneurs, and paid employees," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 66-84.
    14. Cheng, Zhiming & Smyth, Russell, 2021. "Education and migrant entrepreneurship in urban China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 506-529.
    15. Eriko Naiki & Yuta Ogane, 2022. "Human capital effects on fundraising for necessity- and opportunity-based entrepreneurs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 721-741, August.
    16. Naijia Guo & Charles Ka Yui Leung, 2021. "Do elite colleges matter? The impact on entrepreneurship decisions and career dynamics," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 12(4), pages 1347-1397, November.
    17. Sundriyal, Vivek Kumar & Gabrielsson, Jonas, 2024. "The employment consequences of founding an incorporated business among STEM founders: Evidence from Swedish microdata," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    18. McCann, Brian T. & Folta, Timothy B., 2012. "Entrepreneurial entry thresholds," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 782-800.
    19. Murat Yalcintas & Oyk㜠Iyigãœn & Gokhan Karabulut, 2023. "Personal Characteristics And Intention For Entrepreneurship," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 68(02), pages 539-561.
    20. Elert, Niklas & Sjöö, Karolin & Wennberg, Karl, 2020. "When Less Is More: Why Limited Entrepreneurship Education May Result in Better Entrepreneurial Outcomes," Working Paper Series 1322, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    entrepreneurship; higher education; college dropouts; returns to entrepreneurship;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • I29 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Other

    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:mar:magkse:201628. 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: Bernd Hayo (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vamarde.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.