author ： Ruixue Jia  Xiaohuan Lan
abstract :Using a national sample in China, we find that in provinces with a big government,
people whose parents work in government are more likely to become entrepreneurs.
Their business revenue is also higher than those entrepreneurs without a cadre parent.
The self-evaluation of the determinants of success reveals the key role of social networks
and connections to powerful ocials. We provide evidence that cadre parents help their
children attract more friends or marry into other cadre families, while big governments
create more business opportunities for these children. The eect of cadre parents does
not vary with other macro-variables except for government size, nor does the eect of
government size vary with other types of parents.