Virgilio Failla (University of Bath)

Abstract: In this paper we posit that the decisions to enter and persist into self-employment are shaped by and intertwined with the decision to become parent. By considering how parenthood influences the parents’ values and that the biological gender of newborns also influences the likelihood of inter-generational firm transfers, we focus on individual entrepreneurial dynamics. First, we find that parenthood is associated with entrepreneurship. Second, we exploit the randomness in the biological gender of newborns and we find that male children in particular trigger the decision to become entrepreneur. Also, fathers are more likely to persist in entrepreneuship after parenthood. Our results confirm the importance of considering the embeddedness of family and show that the decision to become parent has repercussions on the choice of entrepreneurship.