Is entrepreneurship inherited? A study of intergenerational social mobility in Mexico

• Viviana Vélez Grajales ^[1] ; Roberto Vélez Grajales ^[2]
  1. [1] Inter-American Development Bank,
  2. [2] Centro de Estudios Espinosa Yglesias
• Localización: Latin American Journal of Economics: formerly Cuadernos de Economía, ISSN-e 0719-0433, Vol. 51, Nº. 2, 2014, págs. 247-278
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo (pdf)
• Resumen

  • The 2006 ESRU Survey on Social Mobility in Mexico is used to identify determinants of the decision to become an entrepreneur and analyze entrepreneurs’ intergenerational (i.e., respondents-parents) household wealth mobility. Entrepreneurs are distinguished from own-account workers. First, we find that entrepreneurship is strongly determined by the father being an entrepreneur and not necessarily by the individual’s initial wealth or educational attainment. Second, the mean ef fect of entrepreneurial activity on individual income is positive and greater for those whose parents belonged to the extreme ends of the socioeconomic distribution. Third, it is more likely for entrepreneurs to experience greater upward wealth mobility than non-entrepreneurs.