This paper investigates to what extent determinants of the rate of independent startups and the rate of new subsidiaries are different. Using a regional data base for the Netherlands over the period 1988-2002, we investigate the impact of two types of agglomeration effects, localisation and...

In this paper we draw on knowledge spillover literature to suggest that a country’s proportion of exportoriented new ventures, compared to its total number of new ventures, represents an outcome of knowledge spillovers (export spillovers) that stem from foreign direct investment (FDI) and...

In this paper we draw upon the economics literature, and the literature on knowledge spillovers in particular, to examine to what extent a country's level of foreign direct investment (both inward and outward) and international trade (export and import) influence the export orientation of its...

We study the role of the business cycle in the individual decision of own-account workers to hire employees. Using panel data from the European Community Household Panel for the EU-15 countries, we show that own-account workers are less likely to hire employees during recessions. Next, we focus...

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) is a research program executed annually with the aim to obtain internationally comparative high quality research data on entrepreneurial activity at the national level. This academic research consortium started as a partnership between the London...

Following a centuries-long decline in the rate of self-employment, a discontinuity in this downward trend is observed for many advanced economies starting in the 1970s and 1980s. In some countries the rate of self-employment appears to increase. At the same time, cross-sectional analysis shows a...

We investigate developments in business ownership rates in four CEE transition economies (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovak Republic), and compare them with similar developments in other OECD countries in the period 1989-2008. Our analysis reveals that business ownership rates in the...

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) is a research program executed annually with the aim to obtain internationally comparative high quality research data on entrepreneurial activity at the national level. This academic research consortium started as a partnership between the London...

The data set COMPENDIA contains harmonized data on the number of business owners and the size of the labour force for 23 OECD countries over the period 1972-2000, as well as the quotient of these two variables which is called the business ownership rate of a country. Business ownership rates...

Policy in developed countries is often based on the assumption that higher business ownership rates induce economic value. However, not everyone can be a business owner and many labour market participants would contribute more to economic value creation as an employee than a business owner. The...