Gender differences in entrepreneurial choice and risk aversion – a decomposition based on a microeconometric model
Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: Why are female entrepreneurs so rare? In Germany, women exhibit both a lower entry rate into and higher exit rate from self-employment. To explain this gender gap, this study estimates a structural microeconometric model of transition rates that includes a standard risk aversion parameter. Inputs into the model are the expected value and variance of earnings from self-employment and dependent employment, estimated separately by gender and accounting for nonrandom selection into self-employment. The gender differential in the transition rates is decomposed using a novel extension of the Blinder–Oaxaca technique for nonlinear models. Women's higher estimated risk aversion explains the largest part of their higher exit rate but only a small portion of their lower entry rate.
Source: Applied Economics
Author: Frank M. Fossen
Institution: German Institute for Economic Research
Language: English
Subfield: Management of Technology and Innovation
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1529213815