We examine how consumer credit affects entrepreneurship by linking three million earnings and pass-through tax records to credit reports. In the cross-section, we show that self-employment without employees and employer firm ownership increase monotonically with credit limits and credit scores. We then isolate individuals who have had discrete increases in credit limits after the exogenous removal of bankruptcy flags to measure the effects of personal credit on entrepreneurship. Following bankruptcy flag removal, individuals are more likely to start a new employer business and borrow extensively. Those who own businesses with employees borrow $40,000 more after bankruptcy flag removal, a 33% gain relative to the sample average.

我们通过将300万收入和转嫁税收记录与信用报告相关联，研究了消费者信用对企业家精神的影响。在横截面中，我们显示没有雇员和雇主拥有公司所有权的自营职业随着信用额度和信用评分而单调增加。然后，我们隔离在外生消除破产标志后信用额度离散增加的个人，以衡量个人信用对企业家精神的影响。取消破产标志后，个人更有可能开办新的雇主业务并大量借款。与雇员共同经营企业的人在取消破产标志后再借贷40,000美元，相对于样本平均值增加了33％。