We discuss three methodological issues concerning predicting the outcome of financial distress. We argue that the outcome of financial distress should be modeled using a multinomial specification. We also argue for a random rather than matched sampling technique. Finally, we investigate the...

In a controlled laboratory experiment we use one sample of college students and one of mature executives to investigate how positive skew influences risky choices. In reduced-form regressions we find that both students and executives make riskier choices when lotteries display positive skew. We...

Recent research has shown that entrepreneurs who start incorporated firms are fundamentally different from entrepreneurs who start sole proprietorships. This difference suggests that incorporation status may distinguish the self-employed with no ambition to hire from entrepreneurs who plan to...

We explore whether the tendency for smaller firms to have fewer hierarchical layers explains the well-documented inverse correlation between firm size and the rate at which employees become business owners. Our analysis is based on a Swedish matched employer-employee dataset. Conditional on firm...

Recent evidence has shown that entrants into self-employment are disproportionately drawn from the tails of the earnings and ability distributions. This observation is explained by a multitask model of occupational choice in which frictions in the labor market induce mismatches between firms and...

We investigate the private returns for academics that start new businesses. Total earnings for the universe of 478 individuals working at Swedish universities who quit to become full-time entrepreneurs between 1999 and 2008 are compiled. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first analysis...

A review of recent evidence on relative earnings from entrepreneurship versus wage work presents a puzzle: why do individuals become entrepreneurs when entrepreneurs on average apparently earn less than employees? After considering several potential explanations, we empirically analyze one:...

We discuss three methodological issues concerning forecasts of the outcome of financial distress. First, we argue that rather than using a binary model the outcome of financial distress should be modeled using a multinomial specification that distinguishes between failure, survival as going...

Various policies have been devised to stimulate the creation of spin-offs from universities by academics. But we still do not know whether it is privately beneficial for academics to start new businesses. To address this question we compile total earnings for the universe of 478 individuals aged...

Earlier research on the role of universities in fostering entrepreneurial economic development almost exclusively covers spin-offs by faculty and staff. In contrast, we provide general evidence from the U.S. showing that the gross flow of start-ups by recently graduated students with an...