%0 Report
        %A Dawson, Christopher
%A Meza, David Emmanuel de
%A Henley, Andrew
%A Arabsheibani, Reza
        %T Entrepreneurship: Cause or Consequence of Financial Optimism?
        %D 2012
        %8 2012 Sep
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 6844
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp6844
        %X Extant evidence that the self-employed overestimate their returns by more than employees do is consistent with two mutually inclusive possibilities. Self-employment may generate optimism or optimists may be drawn to self-employment. This paper finds that employees who will be self-employed in the future overestimate their short-run financial wellbeing by more than those who never become self-employed. When actually self-employed they are even more optimistic. Employees aspiring to start their own business are also of above average optimism. Cross-sectional findings are therefore an amalgam of psychological disposition and environmental factors, as theory requires if optimism is to be a causal influence on entrepreneurship.
        %K financial optimism
%K expectations
%K self-employment