TY - JOUR
T1 - Early life shocks and entrepreneurship
T2 - evidence from the Vietnam War
AU - Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa
AU - Munyanyi, Musharavati Ephraim
AU - Smyth, Russell
AU - Trinh, Trong-Anh
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - We examine the impact of adverse shocks in childhood on entrepreneurship in adulthood. We focus on the Vietnam War, which represents one of the most intense conflicts in history. Using data from the 1997/1998 Vietnam Living Standard Survey (VLSS) and bombing intensity data, we find that bombing intensity is associated with a higher probability of being an entrepreneur. Specifically, our results suggest that a 10% increase in bombing intensity generates a 4.8 percentage point increase in the probability of being self-employed in the last seven days, and a 2.3 percentage point increase in the probability of being self-employed in the last 12 months. This finding is robust to a suite of robustness checks. We explore economic growth, education, health infrastructure, prevalence of wage-earning opportunities and social capital as potential mechanisms and find that social capital mediates the relationship between the War and entrepreneurship in Vietnam.
AB - We examine the impact of adverse shocks in childhood on entrepreneurship in adulthood. We focus on the Vietnam War, which represents one of the most intense conflicts in history. Using data from the 1997/1998 Vietnam Living Standard Survey (VLSS) and bombing intensity data, we find that bombing intensity is associated with a higher probability of being an entrepreneur. Specifically, our results suggest that a 10% increase in bombing intensity generates a 4.8 percentage point increase in the probability of being self-employed in the last seven days, and a 2.3 percentage point increase in the probability of being self-employed in the last 12 months. This finding is robust to a suite of robustness checks. We explore economic growth, education, health infrastructure, prevalence of wage-earning opportunities and social capital as potential mechanisms and find that social capital mediates the relationship between the War and entrepreneurship in Vietnam.
KW - Adversity
KW - Childhood shocks
KW - Entrepreneurship
KW - Vietnam
KW - War
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85096012839&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.11.009
DO - 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.11.009
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85096012839
SN - 0148-2963
VL - 124
SP - 506
EP - 518
JO - Journal of Business Research
JF - Journal of Business Research
ER -