Self-employment: does parental cultural diversity matter?

Abstract

We find evidence that parents with different cultural background favour self-employment experiences of their children. The effect of parental cultural diversity turns out to be stronger for children with no siblings or having at least a parent with universitary degree.

Keywords:

• parents’ cultural diversity
• self-employment experience

JEL Classification:

• L26
• J21
• D10

Acknowledgements

We thank Tomaso Duso, Dominique Foray and Dario Pozzoli for their valuable comments and suggestions.

Notes

¹ Please see the Appendix for additional information regarding the language categories.

² The geographical groups are Oceania, Northern America, Southern America, Central America, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Northern Africa, Southern Africa, Eastern Africa, Western Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, Western Asia and Eastern Asia. For more details, please consult the following website: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49.htm.

³ See Parrotta et al. (2014) and Marino et al. (2012).