IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/20185.html

Transformative and Subsistence Entrepreneurs: Origins and Impacts on Economic Growth

Author

Listed:
  • Akcigit, Ufuk
  • Alp, Harun
  • Pearce, Jeremy
  • Prato, Marta

Abstract

This paper explores the symbiotic relationship between transformative entrepreneurs and inventors, which is crucial for economic growth. We utilize microdata from Denmark to demonstrate that while the relationship between IQ and general entrepreneurship tends to be negative, it is strongly positive among transformative entrepreneurs. Transformative entrepreneurs, often with higher IQ and education levels, significantly drive R&D and business growth, thereby providing substantial opportunities for inventors. In contrast, average entrepreneurs are more influenced by their family’s entrepreneurship background. Our economic model links these dynamics to overall economic progress, highlighting how higher education influences career paths in entrepreneurship and invention. We identify talent misallocation caused by unequal education access, particularly affecting lower-income families. Our findings indicate the most effective policies strengthen the interplay between higher education, innovation, and entrepreneurship to foster transformative businesses and achieve long-run economic growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Akcigit, Ufuk & Alp, Harun & Pearce, Jeremy & Prato, Marta, 2025. "Transformative and Subsistence Entrepreneurs: Origins and Impacts on Economic Growth," CEPR Discussion Papers 20185, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20185
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP20185
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20185. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CEPR (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://cepr.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.