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Entrepreneurial Couples

Author

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  • Michael S. Dahl

    (Aalborg University, Denmark)

  • Mirjam van Praag

    (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark)

  • Peter Thompson

    (Emory University, United States)

Abstract

We study possible motivations for co-entrepenurial couples to start up a joint firm, using a sample of 1,069 Danish couples that established a joint enterprise between 2001 and 2010. We compare their pre-entry characteristics, firm performance and postdissolution private and financial outcomes with a selected set of comparable firms and couples. We find evidence that couples often establish a business together because one spouse – most commonly the female – has limited outside opportunities in the labor market. However, the financial benefits for each of the spouses, and especially the female, are larger in co-entrepreneurial firms, both during the life of the business and post-dissolution. The start-up of co-entrepreneurial firms seems therefore a sound investment in the human capital of both spouses as well as in the reduction of income inequality in the household. We find no evidence of non-pecuniary benefits or costs of coentrepreneurship

Suggested Citation

  • Michael S. Dahl & Mirjam van Praag & Peter Thompson, 2014. "Entrepreneurial Couples," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 14-055/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:tin:wpaper:20140055
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Entrepreneurship; motives; performance; couples; co-entrepreneurship.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship

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