Entrepreneurship and income inequality: a quantile approach from global panel data

Employing system GMM and panel quantile regression (MM-QR), it fills crucial gaps in the literature, such as cross-country heterogeneity using panel data, endogeneity, and the varying effects of entrepreneurship across different quantiles of the income inequality distribution.

The findings reveal that entrepreneurship reduces income inequality, with the effect being most pronounced at lower quantiles of the income inequality distribution. Moreover, women’s entrepreneurship emerges as a powerful force in reducing inequality, with a more pronounced effect than men’s entrepreneurship, particularly at the higher quantiles where income inequalities are most persistent. While opportunity-driven entrepreneurship narrows income inequality more than necessity-driven, it shows no distinct impact on income inequality quantiles.