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Is it boring to be an entrepreneur? Evidence from Europe

Author

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  • Pirla, Sergio
  • Ortega-Lapiedra, Raquel

Abstract

Individuals not only seek a happy and meaningful life, but an interesting one. In this letter, we show that past estimates of the well-being gains from entrepreneurship have overlooked an important aspect of the relationship between self-employment and well-being: boredom. Using a sample of over 30,000 individuals from 25 European countries, we show that self-employment is related to lower levels of boredom – a relationship that is not captured by traditional measures of hedonic or eudaimonic well-being.

Suggested Citation

  • Pirla, Sergio & Ortega-Lapiedra, Raquel, 2024. "Is it boring to be an entrepreneur? Evidence from Europe," MPRA Paper 122278, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:122278
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    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/122278/1/MPRA_paper_122278.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ryff, Carol D., 2019. "Entrepreneurship and eudaimonic well-being: Five venues for new science," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 646-663.
    2. Martin Binder & Alex Coad, 2013. "Life satisfaction and self-employment: a matching approach," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 1009-1033, May.
    3. Olivier Lamotte & Ana Colovic, 2013. "Do demographics influence aggregate entrepreneurship?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(13), pages 1206-1210, September.
    4. José Ignacio Giménez-Nadal & José Alberto Molina & Jorge Velilla, 2023. "Occupational sorting and the transmission of self-employment between generations," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(12), pages 1631-1634, July.
    5. Maria Meier & Corinna S. Martarelli & Wanja Wolff, 2024. "Is boredom a source of noise and/or a confound in behavioral science research?," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-8, December.
    6. repec:cup:judgdm:v:17:y:2022:i:5:p:1094-1122 is not listed on IDEAS
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Boredom; Entrepreneurship;

    JEL classification:

    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • M5 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics

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