Entrepreneurial Households Fare Better

Posted by: Mark Marich on January 28, 2010 Source: Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship

New research from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy suggests that business-owning households are more likely than others to have higher income and wealth.

Income and Wealth: How Did Households Owning Small Businesses Fare from 1998 to 2007?  by George W. Haynes examines how the income and wealth of households owning small businesses changed in the most recent economic expansion and recovery period. “The report released today finds that households owning small firms in the 1998-2007 period were more likely than other households to be in the top 50 percent in income and wealth,” said Susan M. Walthall, Acting Chief Counsel for Advocacy.

Findings include the following:

•    Households owning any business were significantly more likely to be high income earners in 2007 than in 1998; the largest percentage gain was among owners with more than one business.
•    In the latter part of the period—between 2004 and 2007—the likelihood that households owning a small business had a high income increased by 4.2 percent and the likelihood that they had a high level of wealth increased by more than 20 percent, compared with increases of 2.1 and 5.2 percent, respectively, in households not owning businesses.
•    The characteristics of households and businesses were somewhat different in 1998 than in 2007. By 2007, high income households were headed by younger people, while higher wealth households were headed by older people.
•    From 1998 to 2007, households not owning a business increased real mean wealth by just under 40 percent; the comparable increase for those owning a small business was 63.4 percent.

Category:  General