nep-ent New Economics Papers
on Entrepreneurship
Issue of 2008‒02‒02
eight papers chosen by
Marcus Dejardin
Notre-Dame de la Paix University

  1. Life Scientist Mobility from Academe to Industry: Does Academic Entrepreneurship Induce a Costly “Brain Drain” on the Not-for-Profit Research Sector? By Toole, Andrew A.; Czarnitzki, Dirk
  2. Product Innovation and Survival in a High-Tech Industry. By Roberto Fontana; Lionel Nesta
  3. Financial Constraints and Other Obstacles: Are they a Threat to Innovation Activity? By Mohnen, Pierre; Palm, Franz; Schim van der Loeff, Sybrand; Tiwari, Amaresh
  4. Characteristics Of Migrant Entrepreneurship In Europe By Baycan-Levent, Tuzin; Nijkamp, Peter
  5. Changing trends in rural self-employment in Europe By Gulumser, Aliye Ahu; Baycan Levent, Tuzin; Nijkamp, Peter
  6. Measuring the Welfare Effect of Entry in Differentiated Product Markets: The Case of Medicare HMOs By Shiko Maruyama
  7. The Effect of Corporate Taxes on Investment and Entrepreneurship By Simeon Djankov; Tim Ganser; Caralee McLiesh; Rita Ramalho; Andrei Shleifer
  8. Optimal taxation of entrepreneurial capital with private information By Stefania Albanesi

  1. By: Toole, Andrew A.; Czarnitzki, Dirk
    Abstract: When academic researchers participate in commercialization using for-profit firms there is a potentially costly trade-off – their time and effort are diverted away from academic knowledge creation. This is a form of brain drain on the not-for-profit research sector which may reduce knowledge accumulation and adversely impact long-run economic growth. In this paper, we examine the economic significance of the brain drain phenomenon using scientist-level panel data. We identify life scientists who start or join for-profit firms using information from the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and analyze the research performance of these scientists relative to a control group of randomly selected research peers. Combining our statistical results with data on the number of university spin-offs in the U.S. from 1994 to 2004 we find the academic brain drain has a nontrivial impact on knowledge creation in the not-forprofit research sector.
    Date: 2007
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:6892&r=ent
  2. By: Roberto Fontana (Department of Economics, University of Pavia and CESPRI - Bocconi University, Milan, Italy.); Lionel Nesta (Observatoire Fran»cais des Conjonctures Economiques, D¶epartement de Recherche sur l'Innovation et la Concurrence, Valbonne, France.)
    Abstract: We investigate the relationship between product innovation and firm survival for a sample of 121 firms in a high-tech industry. We find that location near the technological frontier is an important determinant of fim survival. Firms located near the frontier are also more likely to be acquired than to exit by failure if they cannot survive. This suggests that product location in the technology space acts as a signal of firm quality. Possessing a substantial stock of intangible capital, on the other hand, determines neither exit via failure nor exit via acquisition, although it increases the probability of surviving.
    Keywords: Product innovation, survival, high-tech industry
    JEL: L25 L63 O32
    Date: 2007–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cri:cespri:wp208&r=ent
  3. By: Mohnen, Pierre (UNU-MERIT and University of Maastricht); Palm, Franz (University of Maastricht); Schim van der Loeff, Sybrand (University of Maastricht); Tiwari, Amaresh (University of Maastricht)
    Abstract: In this paper we examine the importance of financial and other obstacles to innovation in the Netherlands using statistical information from the CIS 3.5 innovation survey. We report results on the effect of these obstacles on the firms' decision to abandon, prematurely stop, seriously slow down, or not to start an innovative project. These results are compared with those from other studies in the Netherlands and other countries. We end with a discussion of policy measures that have been taken to overcome, or at least attenuate these obstacles, such as R&D tax incentives, venture capital financing and policy mix pakages.
    Keywords: Financial Constraints, Innovation, Innovation Policy
    JEL: O38
    Date: 2008
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2008006&r=ent
  4. By: Baycan-Levent, Tuzin (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculteit der Economische Wetenschappen en Econometrie (Free University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics Sciences, Business Administration and Economitrics); Nijkamp, Peter
    Abstract: The present paper aims to investigate and compare various modalities of migrant entrepreneurship in European countries in order to design a systematic classification of migrant entrepreneurship and to highlight key factors of migrant entrepreneurship in Europe. The paper is based on a comparative assessment of available quantitative data and qualitative information derived from a broad review of findings from previous studies in the literature. Our quantitative evaluation includes the European OECD countries, while our qualitative investigation addresses migrant entrepreneurship experiences in eight European countries: Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and the UK. The results of our comparative analysis show that the general picture of European migrant entrepreneurship is determined by some distinct push factors such as high unemployment rates and low participation rates or low status in the labour market as well as by an accompanying factor, viz. mixed embeddedness. The results of our comparative evaluation are summarized in a systematic typological table. These show that, while an informal and labour-intensive sector, an underground economy, and small companies and traditional households prompt migrant entrepreneurship in Southern European countries, an overrepresentation of non-Western immigrants among the self-employed, as well as relatively lower income levels of self-employed immigrants compared to both self-employed natives and employed immigrants are decisive for migrant entrepreneurship in Northern European countries.
    Date: 2007
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:vuarem:2007-14&r=ent
  5. By: Gulumser, Aliye Ahu (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculteit der Economische Wetenschappen en Econometrie (Free University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics Sciences, Business Administration and Economitrics); Baycan Levent, Tuzin; Nijkamp, Peter
    Abstract: In recent years, several countries have emphasized the importance of employment in rural areas by setting up schemes for strategic priorities and financial resources for rural development. Currently, many countries regard self-employment in rural areas as the key element of rural development. This in contrast to the past, where agriculture was the only employment resource in rural areas; today’s rural areas have changed and offer different business opportunities not only in agriculture, but also in service sectors such as mass and small-scale tourism activities. Nevertheless, agriculture still keeps its importance in rural and national economy. Against this background, the aim of this study is to evaluate rural self-employment in the EU countries, while comparing Turkey’s self- employment with data on EU member states. The study focuses on self-employment trends in agriculture sector on the basis of changing motivations and participations of males and females. The data and information used for comparison and evaluation are based on Eurostat and Turkstat data. The results of our study show that agricultural employment and self-employment exhibit a slight decrease over time and that the impact of this decrease in male and female employment differs among countries in Europe. The results of our study show also that the motivation of Turkish women towards self-employment is higher than that of European women and of Turkish men.
    Date: 2007
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:vuarem:2007-17&r=ent
  6. By: Shiko Maruyama (School of Economics, The University of New South Wales)
    Abstract: Should governments subsidize entry to promote competition? In general, theory models cannot determine whether entry under the free-entry condition is socially excessive, optimal, or insufficient. In this paper I propose an empirical framework to evaluate welfare consequences of policy intervention through entry in differentiated product markets, with a case study of the US Medicare HMO market. In endogenizing firms' entry-exit decision, a technical breakthrough is to explicitly incorporate firm heterogeneity by employing a sequential move game. This enables us to exploit detailed firm level data and makes policy simulations relevant. I find no evidence of socially excessive entry. The government may achieve higher social welfare by expanding the program.
    Date: 2008–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:swe:wpaper:2008-01&r=ent
  7. By: Simeon Djankov; Tim Ganser; Caralee McLiesh; Rita Ramalho; Andrei Shleifer
    Abstract: We present new data on effective corporate income tax rates in 85 countries in 2004. The data come from a survey, conducted jointly with PricewaterhouseCoopers, of all taxes imposed on "the same" standardized mid-size domestic firm. In a cross-section of countries, our estimates of the effective corporate tax rate have a large adverse impact on aggregate investment, FDI, and entrepreneurial activity. For example, a 10 percent increase in the effective corporate tax rate reduces aggregate investment to GDP ratio by 2 percentage points. Corporate tax rates are also negatively correlated with growth, and positively correlated with the size of the informal economy. The results are robust to the inclusion of controls for other tax rates, quality of tax administration, security of property rights, level of economic development, regulation, inflation, and openness to trade.
    JEL: G38 H25
    Date: 2008–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13756&r=ent
  8. By: Stefania Albanesi (Department of Economics, Columbia University)
    Abstract: This paper studies optimal taxation of entrepreneurial capital with private information and multiple assets. Entrepreneurial activity is subject to a dynamic moral hazard problem and entrepreneurs face idiosyncratic capital risk. We first characterize the optimal allocation subject to the incentive compatibility constraints resulting from the private information. The optimal tax system implements such an allocation as a competitive equilibrium for a given market structure. We consider several market structures that differ in the assets or contracts traded and obtain three novel results. First, differential asset taxation is optimal. Marginal taxes on bonds depend on the correlation of their returns with idiosyncratic capital risk, which determines their hedging value. Entrepreneurial capital always receives a subsidy relative to other assets in the bad states. Second, if entrepreneurs are allowed to sell equity, the optimal tax system embeds a prescription for double taxation of capital income at the firm level and at the investor level. Finally, we show that taxation of assets is essential even with competitive insurance contracts, when entrepreneurial portfolios are also unobserved.
    JEL: D82 E22 E62 G18 H2 H21 H25 H3
    Date: 2007
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clu:wpaper:0607-11&r=ent

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