Smart and Illicit: Who Becomes an Entrepreneur and Do They Earn More?*
将自雇者分为注册公司和非注册公司两类，发现注册公司者从事更多非日常认知活动，青少年时期学习能力更强、自尊更高且更常参与越轨行为，这种“聪明又越轨”的组合预测了创业选择和收入优势。
Abstract We disaggregate the self-employed into incorporated and unincorporated to distinguish between “entrepreneurs” and other business owners. We show that the incorporated self-employed and their businesses engage in activities that demand comparatively strong nonroutine cognitive abilities, while the unincorporated and their firms perform tasks demanding relatively strong manual skills. People who become incorporated business owners tend to be more educated and—as teenagers—score higher on learning aptitude tests, exhibit greater self-esteem, and engage in more illicit activities than others. The combination of “smart” and “illicit” tendencies as youths accounts for both entry into entrepreneurship and the comparative earnings of entrepreneurs. Individuals tend to experience a material increase in earnings when becoming entrepreneurs, and this increase occurs at each decile of the distribution.