Popular and policy discussions have focused extensively “entrepreneurship.” While entrepreneurship is often viewed from the perspective the individuals' benefits - an increase in standard of living, flexibility in hours, and so forth - much of the policy interest derives from the presumption...

In this paper we analyze microdata to explore differences in the rates at which American and German workers leave their salaried jobs to become self-employed. We document that the rate of self-employment is lower in Germany than in the U.S., and the rate of transition from wage-earning to...

One criticism of the estate tax is that it prevents the owners of family businesses from passing their enterprises onto their children. The problem is that it may be difficult to pay estate taxes without liquidating the business. A natural question is why individuals with such concerns do not...