[Séminaire Caen] Migrating to a Golden Opportunity: The Gold Rush and the roots of persistence of interregional differences in entrepreneurship - UFR SEGGAT - MRSH

Abstract:
Regional differences in entrepreneurship are persistent over time. However, little is known about the historical roots of this persistence and the mechanisms linking these roots to entrepreneurial activity over time. In this paper, we aim to explore the persistence of regional entrepreneurship in the U.S., which we trace back to the gold rushes of the 19th century. In this exploratory paper, our focus is mainly on the migration of entrepreneurial minded individuals as a mechanism through which the gold rush influenced entrepreneurship over time. We find empirical evidence of selective migration from entrepreneurial regions and from individuals employed in entrepreneurial occupations to gold rush counties over a period of 100 years. Moreover, migration to the gold rush counties made people more entrepreneurial compared to both migrants moving elsewhere and non-migrants. We also find some evidence that states strongly affected by the gold rush have in contemporary times more entrepreneurship-friendly laws and regulations as well as a more entrepreneurial culture proxied by a regional personality profile. Lastly, we show that gold rush regions, compared to neighboring regions without a gold rush, have persistently higher entrepreneurship rates from the earliest available data in 1910 to the present. Taken together, our analyses indicate that the gold rush and subsequent migration patterns had a long-term positive effect on entrepreneurship in the gold rush regions.