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on Entrepreneurship |
| By: | Vincent Van Roy (European Commission - JRC); Daniel Nepelski (European Commission - JRC) |
| Abstract: | High-tech entrepreneurship is one of the main means by which new knowledge and technologies are converted into economic and social benefits. This report analyses the levels and determinants of high-tech entrepreneurship across European countries. To this end, it uses country-level data on high- and low-tech total early-stage entrepreneurial activity provided by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). Panel data estimations for the period 2007-2014 reveal that EU Member States with better access to finance, less bureaucracy, more consistent policy regimes, favourable entrepreneurship education, and qualitative intellectual property rights that lower patent thicketing strategies exhibit a higher proportion of high-tech firm creation. In addition, greater technological density is associated with a higher rate of high-tech entrepreneurship creation, suggesting beneficial influences of path-dependency and agglomeration effects. |
| Keywords: | ecosystem; financial; growth; ICT; indicator; innovation; policy; research; industry |
| Date: | 2017–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc104865&r=ent |
| By: | Marco Mariani (IRPET – Regional Institute for Economic Planning of Tuscany); Alessandra Mattei (Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti", Università di Firenze); Lorenzo Storchi; Daniele Vignoli (Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti", Università di Firenze) |
| Abstract: | Public support to start-ups often has the dual ambition of fostering self-employment of disadvantaged individuals while nurturing entrepreneurship. In this paper we evaluate a female and youth start-up program recently implemented in Tuscany (Italy), which provides public guarantees and subsidized interest rates to new firms. Under the assumption of strong ignorability of the assignment mechanism, we use a propensity score matching approach to draw inference on causal effects of the program on firms’ survival and job creation. Results suggest that public support in this area may have rather ambiguous effects. It helps females and young people escape unemployment or inactivity, and may lead to further job creation. Unfortunately, all this occurs at the price of committing public resources towards entrepreneurial projects that hardly gain efficiency over time. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, self-employment, program evaluation |
| JEL: | J68 L26 R50 |
| Date: | 2017–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fir:econom:wp2017_04&r=ent |
| By: | Andrea Éltető (Institute of World Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences) |
| Abstract: | European small and medium-sized enterprises were severely hit by the international crisis of 2008 and export activity – as a form of internationalisation - was an important component of the recovery. This paper concentrates on the post-crisis period of the Iberian, Baltic and Visegrád countries. As for born global firms have spread and these countries are strongly involved in global production networks, the theory of international new ventures and the network approach can especially be appropriate for them. The significance of SMEs in employment, value added and export and their pace of recovery is different in the three regions. Apart from the structural rearrangements in exporting enterprises, the geographical direction of exports has also changed temporarily towards non-EU markets after the crisis. Based on existing enterprise surveys the second part of the article focuses on the export enhancing and hindering factors in the post-crisis period. Overall, product features and manager attitude proved to be the most important in export competitiveness. Lack of finance and contacts, strong foreign competition and high market entry costs are the leading export barriers for SMEs. |
| Keywords: | SMEs, export, export barriers |
| JEL: | F10 |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iwe:workpr:228&r=ent |
| By: | Seven Ağır (Department of Economics, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey); Cihan Artunç (Department of Economics, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA) |
| Abstract: | In 1942, the Republic of Turkey promulgated a controversial tax on personal wealth to finance mobilization of the army and curb inflation. The extraordinary tax was arbitrarily assessed and the burden fell disproportionately on non-Muslim minorities. The precise transformative effect of the tax on Turkey’s commercial life is not well understood. This article assembles a new dataset of firms operating in Istanbul to show the tax led to a dramatic rise on the liquidation of enterprises with non-Muslim ownership but no effect on Muslims. At the same time, the tax caused a sharp decline in the formation of new non-Muslim firms and a commensurate increase in the number of Muslim firms. The results show that the Wealth Tax forced the dissolution of otherwise productive, older firms and contributed to the further nationalization of the economy. |
| Keywords: | Turkish economic history, wealth tax, firm survival |
| JEL: | N84 N85 O1 |
| Date: | 2017–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:met:wpaper:1707&r=ent |
| By: | Corbae, Dean (University of Wisconsin - Madison); D'Erasmo, Pablo (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we ask how bankruptcy law affects the financial decisions of corporations and its implications for firm dynamics. According to current U.S. law, firms have two bankruptcy options: Chapter 7 liquidation and Chapter 11 reorganization. Using Compustat data, we first document capital structure and investment decisions of non-bankrupt, Chapter 11, and Chapter 7 firms. Using those data moments, we then estimate parameters of a firm dynamics model with endogenous entry and exit to include both bankruptcy options in a general equilibrium environment. Finally, we evaluate a bankruptcy policy change recommended by the American Bankruptcy Institute that amounts to a \fresh start" for bankrupt _rms. We find that changes to the law can have sizable consequences for borrowing costs and capital structure, which via selection affects productivity (allocative effciency rises by 2:58%) and welfare (rises by 0:54%). |
| Keywords: | bankruptcy law; corporations; United States |
| Date: | 2017–06–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:17-14&r=ent |