Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Series: Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers
Creation-Date: 2014-05-08
Number: 14-055/V
Author-Name: Michael S. Dahl
Author-Workplace-Name: Aalborg University, Denmark
Author-Name: Mirjam van Praag
Author-Workplace-Name: Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Author-Name: Peter Thompson
Author-Workplace-Name: Emory University, United States
Title: Entrepreneurial Couples
Abstract: We study possible motivations for co-entrepenurial couples to start up a joint firm, using a sample of 1,069 Danish couples that established a joint enterprise between 2001
and 2010. We compare their pre-entry characteristics, firm performance and postdissolution private and financial outcomes with a selected set of comparable firms and
couples. We find evidence that couples often establish a business together because one spouse – most commonly the female – has limited outside opportunities in the labor
market. However, the financial benefits for each of the spouses, and especially the female, are larger in co-entrepreneurial firms, both during the life of the business and post-dissolution. The start-up of co-entrepreneurial firms seems therefore a sound investment
in the human capital of both spouses as well as in the reduction of income inequality in the household. We find no evidence of non-pecuniary benefits or costs of coentrepreneurship
Classification-JEL: J12, L26
Keywords: Entrepreneurship, motives, performance, couples, co-entrepreneurship.
File-Url: https://papers.tinbergen.nl/14055.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 427045 bytes
Handle: RePEc:tin:wpaper:20140055