In this paper, we analyse where people who become self-employed actually start their firms. In the entrepreneurship literature, it is generally assumed that individuals who start a firm start it where they live. We question this general assumption and show that this does not hold for commuters....

This paper examines the effects of human capital on the growth and survival of a large sample of Swedish businesses. Human capital is represented by conventional measures of the educational attainment and experience of an establishment’s workers, and skills-based measures of the types of...

The returns to education have been thoroughly investigated and Sweden has shown to have a relatively low return compared to other countries in Europe. Nevertheless, few studies have combined the regional perspective with returns to education. Hence, the purpose of the paper is to analyze...

This paper investigates the impact human capital has on new firm formation, traditionally expected to have a positive influence. Individuals are attracted to regions with a stimulating atmosphere and tend to stay within the same region. Since human capital is partly spatially bounded, the size...

The Lisbon Agenda was approved in mars 2000 and at that time, the European Union was facing economic prosperity. Even so, globalization and new knowledge economies were becoming an increasing threat and the EU was in need of a transformation in its economy and society. The Lisbon Agenda was set...

The Lisbon Agenda that was launched in 2000, and had a set time-period of ten years. The purpose of the Lisbon Agenda was to make the EU the most competitive, knowledge-based economy in the world, and at the same time preserving, or even improving social cohesion and maintain environmental...

Several studies confirm a positive inverted U-shaped 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, this paper adds knowledge about how individuals close to their retirement act in terms of...

It is well established at whatever spatial level studied that economic actors exhibit a strong tendency to cluster. Despite this fact many explanations to entrepreneurship only considers the personal characteristics of entrepreneurs. This is certainly not a satisfactory state-of-the-art. It is...

There is a tendency in Europe that older individuals are those most prone to start a new firm. This paper analyses if this statement is true also for Sweden. A first approach is to analyze the tendency at the regional level where the influnce from different age cohorts on the rate of new firm...

It is natural to assume that the characteristics of the bank sector are important factors for new firm formation when external capital is needed for establishing new firms. The local bank sector acts as the main provider of financial funds in Sweden since other sources of external capital are...