| By: |
Boudreaux, Christopher J. (Florida Atlantic University, United States);
Elert, Niklas (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN));
Henrekson, Magnus (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN));
Lucas, David S. (Syracuse University, United States) |
| Abstract: |
Amidst considerable debate on the relationship between entrepreneurship and
economic inequality, scholarship only indirectly addresses how
entrepreneurship informs individuals’ relative well-being. We theorize on the
nuanced relationship between entrepreneurship and equality of eudaimonic
well-being through the lens of New Institutional Economics. Drawing on
theories of human flourishing, we suggest that entrepreneurial action is an
underappreciated mechanism by which individuals pursue well-being. Equality of
well-being is thus influenced by a society’s entrepreneurial accessibility:
the freedom of individuals to choose to engage in entrepreneurial action. We
present a multilevel framework in which institutional factors enable
entrepreneurial action by promoting entrepreneurial accessibility—a factor,
that, in turn, affects well-being for individual entrepreneurs as well as
societal eudaimonic equality. The ex ante conditions for equality of
well-being entail institutions that yield broad entrepreneurial accessibility.
Our work highlights the institutional prerequisites for human flourishing in
the entrepreneurial society beyond (unequal) economic distributions. |
| Keywords: |
Inequality; Entrepreneurship; Well-being; Institutions; Eudaimonia |
| JEL: |
D31 D63 I30 L26 O43 |
| Date: |
2021–10–13 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1410&r= |