Abstract
This paper investigates birth order effects on adult self-employment. Drawing on Sulloway's ‘born to rebel’ thesis, we test whether or not last-borns whose parents have no prior self-employment experience are more likely to bear and assume the risks associated with self-employment. We also test if parental self-employment experience moderates the relationship between last-borns and self-employment. Using large-scale life-span data on 6322 cohort members, a within-family design, and controlling for demographic confounds such as the number of siblings, we find that last-borns from non-entrepreneurial families are more likely to be self-employed than first or middle-borns. However, in families with parental experience of self-employment, we find that last-borns in three or more child families are no more likely to be self-employed than their siblings.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 101 |
Pages (from-to) | 270-275 |
Journal | Personality and Individual Differences |
Volume | 101 |
Issue number | October |
Early online date | 12 Jun 2016 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Oct 2016 |
Keywords
- Birth order
- Last-borns
- Risk
- Self-employment