Frank Fossen Headshot

Frank Fossen

Professor of Economics, Charles N. Mathewson Professorship in Entrepreneurship

Summary

Frank Fossen is a Professor of Economics and the Charles N. Mathewson Professor in Entrepreneurship in the Department of Economics at the University of Nevada, Reno. He is also the Field Editor for “Economics and Entrepreneurship” at the Journal of Business Venturing. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Freie Universität Berlin in 2008.

Frank Fossen’s research covers the economics of entrepreneurship, public economics, and labor economics. For example, he investigates how public policies affect entrepreneurship, the importance of credit and wealth, the impacts of innovative technologies such as AI, and the roles of economic preferences and personality in entrepreneurship. He has published more than forty papers in peer-reviewed journals, including Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, European Economic Review, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, JPE Microeconomics, and Journal of Financial Intermediation.

CV and list of publications

Refereed journal publications since 2022

Recent working papers

  • Md Mobarak Hossain, Frank M. Fossen, and Sankar Mukhopadhyay (2025): “An Estimated Model of Employer and Non-Employer Entrepreneurship,” IZA Discussion Paper 18009.
  • Robert Fairlie, Frank M. Fossen, Andrew C. Johnston, and Ke Lyu (2025): “The Effects of Local Taxes and Incentives on Entrepreneurship: Evidence from the Universe of U.S. Startups,” SSRN Working Paper.
  • Yifan Yang, Magnus Johannesson, Frank M. Fossen, Levent Neyse, and Felix Holzmeister (2025): “Heterogeneity in Gender Differences in Self-reported Political Preferences, Trust, and Well-being across 39 European Countries,” SSRN Working Paper.
  • Yifan Yang, Magnus Johanneson, Anna Dreber, Frank M. Fossen, Levent Neyse, and Felix Holzmeister (2025): “Does Having Daughters Affect Political Preferences? A High-powered Meta-analysis of Many Surveys,” SSRN Working Paper.
  • Thomas Åstebro, Frank M. Fossen, and Cédric Gutierrez (2024): “Entrepreneurs: Clueless, Biased, Poor Heuristics, or Bayesian Machines?” IZA Discussion Paper 17231.
  • Emilio Congregado, Frank M. Fossen, Nicola Rubino, and David Troncoso (2024): “Long-Term Effects of Shocks on New Opportunity and Necessity Entrepreneurship,” IZA Discussion Paper 16930.
  • Ege Can and Frank M. Fossen (2023): “Income Taxation and Hours Worked in Different Types of Entrepreneurship,” IZA Discussion Paper 16683.
  • Frank M. Fossen and Stela Ivanova (2021): “Obesity and Self-Employment: Health and Social Mechanisms of the Transition to Self-Employment,” Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings (abstract).

Most of Frank Fossen's publications can be downloaded from Google Scholar or RePEc.

Teaching

Fall 2025

  • ECON 102: Principles of Microeconomics (undergraduate course)
  • ECON 743: Applied Microeconometric Methods (graduate course)

Spring 2026

  • ECON 758: Empirical Public Economics (graduate course)
  • ECON/ENT 473/673: Economics of Entrepreneurship (undergraduate and graduate course)

All syllabi and course materials are provided on WebCampus.