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Small Business Economics
Published in: Small Business Economics 2/2020

12-12-2019

Entrepreneurial spirits in women and men. The role of financial literacy and digital skills

Authors: Noemi Oggero, Maria Cristina Rossi, Elisa Ughetto

Published in: Small Business Economics | Issue 2/2020

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Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the attitudes to entrepreneurship of Italian households, focusing on the importance of financial literacy and digital skills as potentially relevant factors shaping entrepreneurship. We put the gender focus to our analysis to detect whether, and to what extent, women and men differ in their propensity to run a business. We carry out our research by using the Bank of Italy SHIW dataset for the years 2008 and 2010. Our findings suggest a strong heterogeneity between men and women in the role played by financial literacy and digital skills. Results show a positive and significant correlation between financial literacy and the probability of being an entrepreneur but only for men. We also find that digitally skilled male respondents are much more likely to be entrepreneurs.
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Footnotes
1
The linear probability model is increasingly seen as a suitable alternative to the probit or logit model (Wooldridge 2002).
 
2
We find similar results if we exclude retirees from the sample.
 
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Metadata
Title
Entrepreneurial spirits in women and men. The role of financial literacy and digital skills
Authors
Noemi Oggero
Maria Cristina Rossi
Elisa Ughetto
Publication date
12-12-2019
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Small Business Economics / Issue 2/2020
Print ISSN: 0921-898X
Electronic ISSN: 1573-0913
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-019-00299-7

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