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Clogs to Clogs in Three Generations? Explaining Entrepreneurial Performance in Britain Since 1850

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Tom Nicholas
Tom Nicholas
Affiliation:
British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, Economic History Department, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE. E-mail: t.nicholas@lse.ac.uk.
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Abstract

Research into sculture and entrepreneurship in Britain has been dominated by casual empiricism. This article shows the benefits of using a new method. Lifetime wealth accumulation is specified as a measure of entrepreneurial performance, and applied to data collected from dictionaries of business biography. Industry, region, and religious dissent are ruled out as explanations of entrepreneurial performance. Education and entrepreneurial type are the important predictors. Firm inheritors and those receiving a high-status education experienced relatively low lifetime rates of wealth accumulation. Firm founders, managers, and individuals with a lower-status education were comparatively successful.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 59 , Issue 3 , September 1999 , pp. 688 - 713
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1999

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