Convergence Analysis of the Entrepreneurship Start-Up Barriers

In a majority of the existing research on entrepreneurship start-up, entry “cost”, “time”, and “procedures” were analyzed as the primary barriers against a greater rate of new business start-ups. We examine whether the country differences in the start-up barriers existing in 2003 have been reduced and if so, how fast. We deploy the convergence framework to answer these questions for 132 countries. Results of our analysis indicate that all three start-up barriers for 132 countries are converging toward a reduction of dispersion as well as a catch-up process during the period of 2003- 2015. However, significant variations are found in the convergence processes for the subgroups of countries by incomes and regions. Implications of our findings will be discussed