In this project, we examine the gender differences in entrepreneurship in Sweden by using the unique database of detailed data available about Swedish twins. We show that the gender gap in entrepreneurship is bigger than the gender gap in self-employment, and also that the gender gap in entrepreneurship partly (21 %–32 % of the variation) can be explained by gender differences in personality and psychology. For example, we see that women have a more negative attitude toward calculable risk. On the other hand, we see that women are in favor of the non-calculable uncertainty, an important feature for contractors. Our main conclusion is that there are other important factors than personality and psychology that contribute to the gender gap in entrepreneurship. This conclusion does not change after we control for education and family situation.
Female Entrepreneurship
n most countries, the proportion of men who are self-employed is higher than the proportion of women. This gender difference is important to study both from a gender perspective and from a perspective in which society wants to encourage suitable individuals to start a business.
Project manager
Project participants
Ola Bengtsson
Magnus Johannesson