A principal agent model in an entrepreneurial settingis developed and tested using Federal Reserve Board data on entrepreneurialeffort and wealth in privately held firms. The implications of agency theoryare tested based on three questions: (1) What determines the entrepreneur'sequity share? (2)...

We augment the standard principal-agent model to accommodate an entrepreneurial setting, where effort, ownership, and firm size are determined endogenously. We test the model's predictions (some novel) using new data on entrepreneurial effort and wealth. Accounting for unobserved firm...