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Title: Entrepreneurial Culture or Institutions? A Twentieth Century Resolution

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2009

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Abstract: This paper tests the strength and persistence of cultural influences on entrepreneurshipover the best part of a century. Comparison of marginal self-employment propensities ofUS immigrant groups in 1910 and 2000 suggests a number of stable customary stimuli,deduced from national origins. In accordance with the cultural critique, the Englishwere persistently prone to less entrepreneurship than other US immigrant groups, oncecontrols for entrepreneurship influences are included. The Dutch were consistently aboutaveragely entrepreneurial, not as precocious as might be expected if the predominantProtestant religion encouraged entrepreneurship. Conversely Webers identification ofnineteenth century Catholic culture as inimical to economic development is not born outin the twentieth century by the sustained entrepreneurship of Cubans and Italians in theUnited States. The strongest entrepreneurial cultures were exhibited by those originatingfrom the Middle East, Greece and Turkey, though some historical interpretation isnecessary to establish who these people were. The inference from these patterns is thatentrepreneurial culture must be of minor significance for economic developmentcompared with institutional influences.

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Authors: Zhou, Peng; Foreman-Peck, James

Publisher: Carfiff University

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration

Countries: United States