We study the self-employed decision and its relation to human and social capital. Human capital is necessary to acquire skills. Social capital dampens the effects of uncertainty about future income. Our data set consists of 1339 respondents from the same age group, who were interviewed three...

There is wide consensus that entrepreneurial talent is the ability to discover and exploit market opportunities by taking the relevant risky decisions. Discovery and exploitation are separate but interlinked features of entrepreneurship requiring, in different proportions, the exploitation of...

There is wide consensus that entrepreneurial talent lies in the ability to discover and exploit market opportunities by taking the relevant risky decisions. By determining the nature of the discovery and exploitation processes, institutions and technology play an essential role in shaping...

Il dibattito sulla frammentazione e fragilità del sistema imprenditoriale italiano di fronte alle sfide dell’economia della conoscenza e dell’internazionalizzazione si intreccia con quello relativo al funzionamento dei meccanismi di generazione e di allocazione del capitale umano. Tale...

This paper examines the determinants of self-employment success for microcredit borrowers. Theories of social capital and neighbourhood effects are integrated in an attempt to account for earnings differentials amongst a unique sample of microfinance borrowers. The paper posits that social...

The legitimacy of inequality concerning the income distribution in market economies is based on the assumprion of a dominant individual performance and the assumed existence of equal chances. To test the empirical relevance of this assumption requires the analysis of the determinants of the...

The connection between the weak performance of the Italian economy and the mechanisms governing the creation and allocation of human capital has been investigated only rarely. This paper argues that the Italian economy faces not just a generic shortage of human capital but a specific shortage of...

This paper provides an exploratory analysis on the relationship between educational qualification and work status in Italy, with a particular focus on entrepreneurs and self-employed workers. Rough data are drawn from four waves (1995, 1998, 2002, and 2004) of the Survey of Household Income and...

How valuable is education for entrepreneurs' performance as compared to employees'? What might explain any differences? And does education affect peoples' occupational choices accordingly? We answer these questions based on a large panel of US labor force participants. We show that education...

How valuable is education for entrepreneurs’ performance as compared to employees’? What might explain any differences? And does education affect peoples’ occupational choices accordingly? We answer these questions based on a large panel of US labor force participants. We show that...