Serial entrepreneurs and the macroeconomy

Entrepreneurship is crucial for job creation and economic growth. But not all entrepreneurs are alike. For instance, firms of serial entrepreneurs — owners of multiple businesses — have been documented to outperform other businesses. In this paper, we provide novel evidence showing that firms of serial entrepreneurs are also important for macroeconomic outcomes. Using unique administrative data from Portugal, we document that serial entrepreneur firms (i) disproportionately contribute to aggregate job creation and productivity growth, (ii) help shape aggregate business dynamism, and (iii) are more likely to be high-growth (“gazelles”). This superior performance is largely driven by entrepreneurs’ education, ability, past managerial experience, and lower indebtedness of their firms. We discuss the implications of our findings for macroeconomic models — which typically ignore serial entrepreneurs.