We show that exposure to an industry during upbringing is closely related to later-in-life entrepreneurial choices and success. A majority of male entrepreneurs start a firm in the same or a closely related industry as their fathers’ industry of employment. The probability of entrepreneurship...

We document three new facts about entrepreneurship. First, a majority of male entrepreneurs start a firm in the same or a closely related industry as their fathers' industry of employment. Second, this tendency is correlated with intelligence: higher-IQ entrepreneurs are less likely to follow...

A tradition from Knight (1921) argues that more risk tolerant individuals are more likely to become entrepreneurs, but perform worse. We test these predictions with two risk tolerance proxies: stock market participation and personal leverage. Using investment data for 400,000 individuals, we...