Colloquium: What are Transfer Mechanisms of Regional Entrepreneur­ship over Time? The Impact of Historical Role Models and their Economic Success

Abstract:
Empirical evidence reveals that regional differences in entrepreneurship persist over time. We examine three transmission channels behind this pattern, which indicate a place-based collective memory of entrepreneurship: (1) entrepreneurial role models, (2) the size of entrepreneurial households, and (3) success of entrepreneurs. We show with data spanning nearly 100 years that the historical presence of many successful entrepreneurs and large entrepreneurial household sizes lead to more regional entrepreneurship in later periods. Our work demonstrates how local entrepreneurial role model processes –as an important component of a place-based collective memory –drive long-term persistence of regionaldifferences in entrepreneurship.