Entrepreneurship and an aging population

Several studies confirm a positive relationship between age and entrepreneurship. This paper analyses if this statement is true also for Sweden. By focusing on those above the age of 50, the paper adds knowledge about how individuals close to their retirement acts and how they contribute to the overall society. A first approach is to analyse the tendency at the regional level where the relationship between different age cohorts and the rate of new firm formation is analysed. In the second stage, an individual perspective is taken where the probability to become self-employed is expected to increase as individuals become older. By decomposing the population in different age cohorts, it is possible to find differences in the probability of becoming self-employed. To increase and deepen the knowledge about the relationship between age and entrepreneurship this paper further adds to existing literature by separating regions into different categories along the urban-rural hierarchy. The results confirm the finding that entrepreneurship is a positive function of age. Individuals above 55 and 64 have a positive influence on entrepreneurship at both the regional as well as the individual level where the impact is stronger in locations that are more rural.