The supposed creativity of left-handed and dyslexic individuals may fit well with an entrepreneurial occupation. Empirical evidence from two representative Dutch samples, however, shows that left-handed and dyslexic individuals are not more likely to be(come) entrepreneurs than right-handed and...

We analyze the determinants of reading literacy, mathematical skills and science skills of young immigrant children in The Netherlands. We find that these are affected by age at immigration and whether or not one of the parents is native Dutch.

Using the interaction of language of country of birth and age-at-arrival as instruments, we find strong evidence of a causal effect of English as Additional Language (EAL) on the native–immigrant wage gap for male employees in the UK.

Is India’s high fractionalization associated with mistrust between its two main religious communities? An inter-ethnic trust game field experiment confirms intergroup bias in mutually lower offers between urban Muslims and Hindus in Mumbai. There are no differences in trustworthiness based on...

This study quantifies the disadvantage in literacy skills that arises from the linguistic distance between their mother tongue and host country language, combining individual cross-country data on literacy scores with unique information on the linguistic distance between languages.

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...

SHUTT J. and SUTHERLAND J. (2003) Encouraging the transition into self- employment, Reg. Studies 37 , 97-103. A feature of the current New Deal policy is the encouragement now given to young people to consider becoming self- employed. This article reports the findings of an evaluation of a...

Burke A. E., Fitzroy F. R. and Nolan M. A. Is there a North-South divide in self-employment in England?, Regional Studies. Using decomposition analysis, the paper investigates why Northern England has fewer but higher performing self-employed individuals than the South. It is found that the...

This paper examines the impact of employment protection legislation (EPL) on hiring decisions by own-account workers and firing decisions by very small firms (one to four employees). Using data from the EU-15 countries, our results show that the strictness of employment protection legislation is...