Working Paper Series,
Research Institute of Industrial Economics

Abstract: Existing studies of entrepreneurship focus on entrepreneurs whose individual contribution to wealth creation is typically trivial: self-employed persons. This paper investigates entrepreneurs whose individual contribution to wealth creation is enormous: billionaires. We explore the relationship between economic development, institutions, and these contrasting kinds of entrepreneurs. We find that the institutions consistent with self-employed entrepreneurs di¤er markedly from the ones consistent with billionaires. Further, only the latter are consistent with the institutions that underlie economic prosperity. Where well-protected private property rights and supporting, market-enhancing institutions flourish, so do billionaires. But self-employed entrepreneurs don't. Where private property rights are weakly protected and interventionist institutions flourish, so do self-employed entrepreneurs. But billionaires don't.

Keywords: Billionaires; Entrepreneurship; Self-employment; Institutions

JEL-codes: H20; L26; L53; O17

Language: English

30 pages, January 2, 2012

Full text files

wp893.pdf  

Download statistics

Published as

Peter Leeson and Tino Sanandaji, (2013), 'Billionaires', Industrial and Corporate Change, vol 22, no 1, pages 313-337

• Research Institute of Industrial Economics
• Ordering Working Papers
• Home page for this series

Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Elisabeth Gustafsson (elisabeth.gustafsson@ifn.se)
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson (sune.karlsson@oru.se).

RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0893This page generated on 2024-09-13 22:15:49.