Brett Centre for Entrepreneurship Seminar Series with Dr Maria Ventura
The Brett Centre for Entrepreneurship (BCfE) led by Professor Robert Blackburn, welcomed Dr Maria Ventura, University of Edinburgh and Associate of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics (LSE), to the Management School on Wednesday 7 May for her talk entitled "The returns from the intergenerational transmission of occupations: medical doctors and the role of self-employment."
Dr Ventura gave a stimulating presentation on the incidence of occupational persistence across generations looking at individuals' additional gains when choosing the same profession as their parents.
One of the most intractable areas of debate within the field of entrepreneurship is the role of self-employment in the economy and society. Hence, there is a body of research that seeks to address questions around who are the self-employed and how do they contribute to the dynamics of the labour market and the economy?
Research shows that the self-employed is a heterogenous population, spanning those motivated by entrepreneurial ambition as well as because of necessity, those in the ‘gig-economy through to longer-standing activities, and include part-time and full-time workers and those who employ others. The self-employed also span many professions and include some of the highest and lowest earners in the economy.
In this presentation, Dr Ventura, applied the concept of intergenerational transmission to an entrepreneurship setting and unpacked the consequences for those involved. The seminar provided a significant insight to this process and her paper makes a notable contribution to the literature on the self-employed.
Commenting after her talk, Dr Ventura said "The seminar gave me an opportunity to share my research on the intergenerational transmission of the medical profession and the role of small firms. The findings show sizeable income gains for those who move into the same occupation as their parents, which seem to be concentrated at the time when parents retire. Whether or not this is the case in other occupations remains to be seen!"
The BCfE Seminar Series
The BCfE Seminar Series provides an opportunity to hear from high-profile researchers whose talks focus on the contemporary challenges faced by entrepreneurs in society and the economy.