Spatial variations in intergenerational transmission of self‐employment

Niittykangas H. and Tervo H. (2005) Spatial variations in intergenerational transmission of self‐employment, Regional Studies 39 , 319–332. Intergenerational transfers of human and non‐human capital may motivate children to follow their self‐employed parent. This paper analyses occupational inheritance among self‐employed families in Finland. Longitudinal micro data from 1970–99 are exploited. The sample consists of children aged 0–14 years in 1970. The results show that having an entrepreneurial family background strengthens the probability of entering self‐employment. The results confirm the notion of the importance of the local environment for self‐employment. They also offer some evidence for the hypothesis that intergenerational transmission of self‐employment is an explanation for spatial differences in self‐employment.

Keywords:

• Self‐employment
• Intergenerational transfer
• Spatial differences
• Micro data
• Logit analysis
• Finland
• Travail indépendant
• Transmission entre les générations
• Variation géographique
• Données microéconomiques
• Analyse logit
• Finlande
• Freiberufliche
• Tätigkeit
• Vererbung von einer
• Generation zur andern
• Mikrodaten räumlicher
• Unterschiede
• Logitanalyse
• Finnland
• Empleo autónomo
• Traspaso inter‐generacional
• Diferencias espaciales
• Datos micro
• Análisis logit
• Finlandia
• JEL classifications: J23, J24, J62, M13