Entrepreneurs in Latin America

This paper, by analyzing how narrow task-related personality traits relate to different entrepreneurial behavior in Latin America, contributes to the literature that is moving the focus from the big five personality traits to narrow traits, the literature that is searching for answers of how the environment mediates the relationship between traits and entrepreneurial behavior, and the literature that analyzes the differences among different types of entrepreneurs. We exploit a large and rich database that has individual-level information for nine Latin American countries and one USA city. The evidence indicates that there are some narrow personality traits that are positively associated with entrepreneurial behavior in Latin America, that this association is weaker for individuals who show weaker entrepreneurial behavior, and that the environment seems to be relevant to understanding the differences in the personality traits of Latin American and USA entrepreneurs. Diego Aboal