Entrepreneurship turnover and endogenous returns to ability

Abstract

This paper proposes a model of entrepreneurial turnover highlighting a non-monotone relationship between technological change and ability-biased sorting into entrepreneurial types. Entrepreneurial decisions are examined in a two-stage model under uncertainty in which entrepreneurs decide to abandon a project and start a new venture depending on technological change and on ability. We show that technological change affects the quality distribution of entrepreneurship by increasing the ex-ante number of entrepreneurs undertaking the most efficient projects and decreasing the post-entry number of entrepreneurs of low-quality firms who choose to continue their initial business. A higher rate of technological change is therefore likely to induce a cleansing effect on entrepreneurial activity and to alter the market perception of business creation.Entrepreneur entry and exit; Technological change; Selection; Stigma