This paper examines the relationship between entrepreneurship (as measured by fluctuations in the business ownership rate) and unemployment in Japan for the period between 1972 and 2002. We find that, although Japan’s unemployment rate has been influenced by specific exogenous shocks, the...

We investigate which countries have the highest potential to achieve entrepreneurial progress. This progress is defined using an entrepreneurial ladder with five successive steps: “never thought about starting a business”, “thinking about starting a business”, “taking steps to start a...

The influence of industrial structure, more specifically of business ownership, is investigated on the level of unemployment in Japan. The question is to what extent business ownership, i.e., entrepreneurship, can reduce the level of unemployment. It will be concluded that Japan is hardly an...

The level of entrepreneurship differs considerably across countries and periods. Both the causes and consequences of entrepreneurship are a matter of extensive scientific debate as well as of great policy importance. A high level of entrepreneurial activity is assumed and shown to contribute to...

In the media role models are increasingly being acknowledged as an influential factor in explaining the reasons for the choice of occupation and career. Various conceptual studies have proposed links between role models and entrepreneurial intentions. However, empirical research aimed at...

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a series of articles on the links between innovation, the evolution of industry and employment. These relations provide the building blocks of a new industrial policy. The articles are included in Innovation, Industry Evolution and Employment published...

This paper studies differences in the rate of self-employment (business ownership) in more than twenty Western nations and Japan for the period 1974-1994, focusing in particular on the influences of dissatisfaction and uncertainty avoidance. We test two types of hypotheses, pertaining to the...

Recent studies show that the likelihood of survival differs significantly across firms. Both firm and industry characteristics are hypothesized to account for this heterogenity. Using a longitudinal database of manufacturing firms we investigate whether firm or industry characteristics dominate....

The extent of beta- and sigma-convergence of average labor productivity across manufacturing industries in 18 OECD-countries over the period 1972-1992 show large inter-industry differences. One reason for these differences is knowledge and capital barriers preventing catch-up to occur. We find...

Total factor productivity of twenty OECD countries for a recent period (1971-2002) is explained using six different models based on the established literature. Traditionally, entrepreneurship is not dealt with in these models. In the present paper it is shown that – when this variable is added...