DETERMINANTS OF WILLINGNESS AND OPPORTUNITY TO START AS AN ENTREPRENEUR

This paper develops an empirical model to separate the unobserved fact ors of 'opportunity' and 'willingness' in the decision of labor force participants to become self-employed or not. The estimation results su ggest that the majority of young Americans is willing to switch to sel f-employment but that opportunity is a major constraint, especially th rough finance. Entrepreneurial ability aspects that can compensate for a lack of capital are scarce.