TY - JOUR
T1 - Education and entrepreneurship selection and performance
T2 - A review of the empirical literature
AU - Van Der Sluis, Justin
AU - Van Praag, Mirjam
AU - Vijverberg, Wim
PY - 2008/11/18
Y1 - 2008/11/18
N2 - This paper provides a review of empirical studies into the impact of formal schooling on entrepreneurship selection and performance in industrial countries. We describe the main effects found in the literature, we explain the variance in results across almost a hundred studies, and we put the empirical results in the context of related economic theory and the much further developed literature in labor economics (studying the rate of return to education among wage employees). Five main conclusions result from this meta-analysis. First, the impact of education on selection into entrepreneurship is insignificant. Second, the effect of education on performance is positive and significant. Third, the return to a marginal year of schooling is 6.1% for an entrepreneur. Fourth, the effect of education on earnings is smaller for entrepreneurs than for employees in Europe, but larger in the USA. Fifth, the returns to schooling in entrepreneurship are higher in the USA than in Europe, higher for females than for males, and lower for non-whites or immigrants. In conclusion, we offer a number of suggestions to move the research frontier in this area of inquiry. The entrepreneurship literature on education can benefit from the technical sophistication used to estimate the returns to schooling for employees.
AB - This paper provides a review of empirical studies into the impact of formal schooling on entrepreneurship selection and performance in industrial countries. We describe the main effects found in the literature, we explain the variance in results across almost a hundred studies, and we put the empirical results in the context of related economic theory and the much further developed literature in labor economics (studying the rate of return to education among wage employees). Five main conclusions result from this meta-analysis. First, the impact of education on selection into entrepreneurship is insignificant. Second, the effect of education on performance is positive and significant. Third, the return to a marginal year of schooling is 6.1% for an entrepreneur. Fourth, the effect of education on earnings is smaller for entrepreneurs than for employees in Europe, but larger in the USA. Fifth, the returns to schooling in entrepreneurship are higher in the USA than in Europe, higher for females than for males, and lower for non-whites or immigrants. In conclusion, we offer a number of suggestions to move the research frontier in this area of inquiry. The entrepreneurship literature on education can benefit from the technical sophistication used to estimate the returns to schooling for employees.
KW - Education
KW - Entrepreneurship
KW - Formal schooling
KW - Industrialized countries
KW - Meta-regression analysis
KW - Performance
KW - Selection
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=55949084297&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1111/j.1467-6419.2008.00550.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1467-6419.2008.00550.x
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:55949084297
VL - 22
SP - 795
EP - 841
JO - Journal of Economic Surveys
JF - Journal of Economic Surveys
SN - 0950-0804
IS - 5
ER -