According to data from the Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs, the primary sources of initial financing for new businesses in the United States are personal and family savings, bank business loans, and personal credit cards. Entrepreneurs also tap other sources of funding along their journeys. These...

Recent empirical literature finds that greater economic freedom at the state level tends to have a positive effect on entrepreneurial activity and economic growth generally. However, state boundaries are relatively arbitrary, and the level of economic freedom in local economies can vary widely...

This paper uses the Stansel (2013) economic freedom index for a maximum of 375 U.S. metropolitan areas to estimate the effect of economic freedom on entrepreneurship while controlling for spatial dependence. This paper finds positive and statistically significant evidence that increases in...

Although the entrepreneurship process begins with individuals with relatively unique personal attributes and a likely penchant for risk taking and achievement, entrepreneurs are “hardly lone individuals who rely primarily on their extraordinary efforts and talents to overcome the difficulties...