Military Experience,Discharge Policies and Entrepreneurial Behavior
This paper investigates the role of military background on entrepreneur-ship using two largely nationally representative survey datasets on households and entrepreneurs in China.We find that the choice of entrepreneurship depends upon the length of service.Veterans that have served more than 10 years are more likely to take jobs in the public sector instead of becoming entrepreneurs,while veterans with a short stint in service are more likely to start businesses than non-veter-ans.Exploiting the variations in military conscription over time to remedy the con-cern about endogenous choice of military service,we find the overall effect of mili-tary service on entrepreneurship is positive.Nascent veteran entrepreneurs are more likely to acquire bank loans,and run larger firms.Our findings are consistent with the predictions of an occupation-choice model:Military service shapes the charac-ters of veterans,which are highly relevant for entrepreneurship;Better job opportu-nities in the public sector for veteran officers mean higher opportunity cost of starting a firm preventing them from becoming entrepreneurs.This paper has profound impli-cations for formulating policies for encouraging entrepreneurship,and evaluating benefit policies for veterans.
万方数据
维普
