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on Entrepreneurship |
| By: | Zohal Hessami; Sebastian Schirner; Clara Wobbe |
| Abstract: | How do asylum seekers affect host-country economies from a supply and demand perspective? What share of such immigration shocks is absorbed by existing vs. new businesses? To study these questions, we combine exclusive business registration and asylum seeker data for the universe of German districts over 2007-2021. We address endogeneity in asylum seeker allocation by exploiting rule-based allocation quotas as an instrument. A one SD treatment (10 asylum seekers/1, 000 inhabitants) leads to 0.7 new businesses (7.9% increase) including 2.7 full-time jobs per 1, 000 inhabitants. A sector-level analysis suggests that the founding of new businesses is both supply- (additional workforce) and demand-driven (need for basic goods/services), while the demand effect kicks in first. District-level employment data shows that total job creation is about four times larger, suggesting that 75% of the immigration shock is absorbed by existing businesses. |
| Keywords: | asylum seekers, business registrations, host-country economy |
| JEL: | F22 J20 L26 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12151 |
| By: | Klaus Friesenbichler; Agnes Kügler |
| Abstract: | We study the short- and medium-term extensive and intensive margins of intangible investments in firm growth processes. The intensive and extensive margins of investment are both highly skewed and differ across sectors. Less productive firms are less likely to invest in intangibles, while incorporated firms are more likely to do so. Intangible capital only complements physical capital for a limited number of firms. Intangible investment is positively associated with short-term productivity growth, particularly among firms that consistently invest over time. The medium-term effects on productivity are limited and are largely confined to top-performing firms. We find systematic short-term effects of intangible investment on employment growth. Regular investment patterns correlate with higher employment growth over both time horizons. These results challenge the conventional assumption that intangible capital uniformly enhances firm performance. They also highlight the importance of sustained investment behavior and sectoral context. |
| Keywords: | intangible capital, employment, productivity, investment, firm growth, sample selection, Austria, microdata |
| Date: | 2025–09–17 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2025:i:711 |
| By: | Christopher Goetz; Henry Hyatt; Zachary Kroff; Kristin Sandusky; Martha Stinson |
| Abstract: | Entrepreneurs are known to be key drivers of economic growth, and the rise of online platforms and the broader “gig economy” has led self-employment to surge in recent decades. Yet the young and small businesses associated with this activity are often absent from economic data. In this paper, we explore a novel longitudinal dataset that covers the owners of tens of millions of the smallest businesses: those without employees. We produce three new sets of statistics on the rapidly growing set of nonemployer businesses. First, we measure transitions between self-employment and wage and salary jobs. Second, we describe nonemployer business entry and exit, as well as transitions between legal form (e.g., sole proprietorship to S corporation). Finally, we link owners to their nonemployer businesses and examine the dynamics of business ownership. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, nonemployer business, dynamics, reallocation, business income |
| JEL: | L26 J63 J21 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:25-60 |
| By: | Drydakis, Nick (Anglia Ruskin University) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the associations between university-led training in AI business applications and business outcomes among small firms, with a focus on underrepresented entrepreneurs in England, Wales, and Scotland. A total of 121 non-native, disabled, and non-heterosexual entrepreneurs participated in a four-month training programme covering AI applications for communication, finance, project management, and other key business functions. Data were collected before the training (2023) and one year later (2024). Using panel data estimates, the findings indicate that, post-training, firms experienced an increase in digital competencies, which were positively associated with customer satisfaction, entrepreneurs’ empowerment, and revenue growth. Notably, interaction effects showed that these associations were significantly strengthened following the training. Additional results reveal that, after the training, firms not only adopted a greater number of AI business applications but also used them more frequently. These behaviours were found to be associated with improvements in business outcomes. The study demonstrates how innovative educational interventions can support entrepreneurs in developing digital competencies. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurs’ empowerment, customer satisfaction, digital competencies, small firms, business education, AI Business Application Training, AI, revenue growth, inclusive entrepreneurship |
| JEL: | L26 M13 O33 I24 I25 J15 J16 M15 D22 C23 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18143 |
| By: | Razan Amine; Qianqian Zhang; Shushanik Hakobyan; Ankita Goel |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the major bottlenecks to private sector development in sub-Saharan Africa using novel methods based on firm-level data. Employing both perception-based and proxy-based methodologies, we identify and measure seven key obstacles to development. Our findings reveal significant divergences between firms' perceptions and objective measures of business constraints. While firms frequently cite infrastructure deficiencies as their primary concern, our proxy-based analysis identifies corruption followed by financial constraints as the most severe impediments to firm growth. Furthermore, small and medium-sized enterprises face disproportionate challenges compared to large firms, especially regarding financial access and human capital limitations. These findings underscore the need for targeted, context-specific policy interventions that address the objective constraints facing different types of firms across diverse economic environments in sub-Saharan Africa. |
| Keywords: | Sub-Saharan Africa; private sector development; firm-level data; principal component analysis |
| Date: | 2025–09–19 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2025/188 |
| By: | Klaus Prettner (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business); Martin Stojanovikj (Deusto Business School, University of Deusto) |
| Abstract: | We examine how extractive institutions affect the timing of the takeoff to sustained economic growth, the pace of industrialization, and the long-run balanced growth path of an economy. The politically dominant ruling elite can choose to extract a share of output and/or to interfere with creative destruction by extracting innovation resources. In so doing, the ruling elite needs to balance its desire for grabbing a greater share of resources with the constraint of being able to stay in power. We show that the extraction from output delays the takeoff to sustained economic growth and reduces economic growth in the early industrial period. However, taken by itself, output extraction does not reduce the long-run balanced growth rate. By contrast, if the ruling elite interferes with creative destruction by extracting resources meant for innovation, it suppresses economic growth during industrialization and along the balanced growth path. After deriving the main results analytically, we calibrate the model to the U.S. economy to illustrate the adverse long-run development effects of extractive institutions. According to our results, institutions and policies that reduce the extractive power of the ruling elite can boost economic development to a substantial degree. |
| Keywords: | Extractive Institutions, Institutions and Growth, Industrial Takeoff, Schumpeterian Growth, Economic Development, Long-Run Growth, Growth Transitions |
| JEL: | O31 O40 O43 D72 P16 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwwuw:wuwp387 |
| By: | Tuuli Paukkeri (VATT Institute for Economic Research); Terhi Ravaska (Tampere University) |
| Abstract: | We present new evidence that privately held firms are used to transfer income to underage children. This exacerbates wealth and income inequality among children and persists at least into early adulthood. Underage children at the top 1% of the parental income distribution are 20 times more likely to be owners of a privately held firm compared to children in the bottom 90%. The average age of these underage firm owners is 12 years, with ownership occurring across all ages from 0 to 17. Tracking data across generations shows that nearly half of these underage children come from non-entrepreneurial family backgrounds. |
| Keywords: | privately held firms, income inequality, income mobility, family business, dynastic wealth |
| JEL: | D3 H2 H3 M1 |
| Date: | 2025–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fit:wpaper:35 |
| By: | Samuel Kortum (Yale University); Bernardo S.C. Ribeiro (Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance) |
| Abstract: | We explore how connections between buyers and suppliers of intermediate inputs evolve over time to promote firm growth. To formalize this process we develop a dynamic model of a granular endogenous production network, making stark assumptions that yield a tractable parsimonious framework. In the model, producers gradually build up a network of contacts by meeting other producers and source an intermediate input from their cheapest contact at any moment. They retain full recall, so can always switch to a producer contacted previously, even if they never bought from it before. Through this process the production network itself becomes an endogenous state variable in the model that drives firm growth. Despite its simplicity, the implications we derive from this framework are realistic enough to test against numerous findings from the burgeoning empirical literature on firm-to-firm trade. |
| Date: | 2025–09–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2459 |
| By: | Celiku, Bledi; Ubfal, Diego Javier; Valdivia, Martin |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the gender gap in the performance of firms in Peru using representative data on both formal and informal firms. On average, informal female-led firms have lower sales, labor productivity, and profits compared to their male-led counterparts, with differences more pronounced when controlling for observable determinants of firm performance. However, gender gaps are only significant at the bottom of the performance distribution of informal firms, and these gaps disappear at the top of the distribution of informal firms and for formal firms. Possible explanations for the performance gaps at the bottom of the distribution include the higher likelihood of small, female-led firms being home-based, which is linked to lower profits, and their concentration in less profitable sectors. The paper provides suggestive evidence that household responsibilities play a key role in explaining the gender gap in firm performance among informal firms. Therefore, policies that promote access to care services or foster a more equal distribution of household activities may reduce gender productivity gaps and allow for a more efficient allocation of resources. |
| Date: | 2025–09–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:111218 |
| By: | Ana Luísa Costa Normando; José Renato Haas Ornelas |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the gender revenue gap among Brazilian microentrepreneurs, sheds a light on the factors behind these disparities, and compares it with the formal job market. We collect payment data from all individual microentrepreneur businesses that remained open throughout the entire year of 2023, and from the owners of the businesses. The empirical approach consists of cross-section regressions comparing this revenue estimate for men and women, controlling for a set of variables, like geographic location and economic activity. Our results indicate that women microentrepreneurs have revenues 31% lower than those of men without any control. When controlling for economic activity, this gap decreases to 23%, so occupation choices account for a quarter of the original gender gap. Other controls like microentrepreneur’s age, firm’s age, and geographical location do not materially change this estimate. Prior formal job experience decreases the gender gap by 7 percentage points. We also estimate a 10% wage gender gap for the formal job market in 2023, which is 1/3 of the microentrepreneurs’ revenue gender gap. |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bcb:wpaper:627 |
| By: | Carlo Bottai (University of Milano–Bicocca); Gaétan de Rassenfosse (Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne); Emilio Raiteri (Eindhoven University of Technology) |
| Abstract: | Measuring the commercialization of patented inventions remains a key challenge in innovation studies. This paper introduces a novel, web-based method for tracking the commercialization of patented inventions. The method leverages targeted web searches to identify online traces of the commercialization of patented products, offering a scalable alternative to surveys and case studies. We apply this method to patents arising from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Small Business Innovation Research program, linking 3, 070 patents to procurement contracts and assessing their commercialization outcomes. The results indicate that 21.5% of these patents show signs of commercialization, with variations across R&D stages and contract phases. The method provides a systematic way to identify market adoption of patented technologies and can be extended to other contexts where identifying commercialized patents is relevant. |
| Keywords: | government-funded research; invention commercialization; patents; policy evaluation; web-based evidence |
| JEL: | O31 O38 O34 L26 H81 C55 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iip:wpaper:28 |
| By: | Masayuki MORIKAWA |
| Abstract: | This study presents evidence on the business performance of firms up to FY2023 that used three major support policies during the COVID-19 crisis: financial assistance, the employment adjustment subsidy, and the business sustainability subsidy. The results show, first, that although productivity among firms that received support improved compared to levels immediately following the crisis, it remained low even after the pandemic subsided. Second, mean wages of firms that received financial assistance or the sustainability subsidy returned to their pre-COVID-19 levels, while wages of firms that used the employment subsidy remained low as of FY2023. Third, by FY 2023, employment levels declined among firms that used the support measures, compared to those that did not. Fourth, the probability of survival in FY2023 was lower for firms that used the support measures, suggesting that the effectiveness of these policies was limited. However, the support measures did not appear to hinder the market’s selection mechanism, whereby less productive firms exit the market. |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:25021 |
| By: | Bénédicte Aldebert (CERGAM - Centre d'Études et de Recherche en Gestion d'Aix-Marseille - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - UTLN - Université de Toulon); Rani Jeanne Dang (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UniCA - Université Côte d'Azur); Amandine Maus (AMU - Aix Marseille Université, CERGAM - Centre d'Études et de Recherche en Gestion d'Aix-Marseille - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - UTLN - Université de Toulon) |
| Abstract: | On parle souvent de David contre Goliath lorsque l'on fait référence aux relations qu'entretiennent les startup et les grands entreprises (GE). Pourtant David et Goliath trouvent des avantages mutuels à travailler ensemble à en croire la progression continue des alliances startup-GE, 87% en 2019 contre 79% en 2017 (selon RAISE et Bain & Company, 2019). La capacité d'innovation des startups, couplée à leur rapidité d'exécution se révèlent en effet être des atouts de taille pour les grandes entreprises tandis que les grandes entreprises apportent des soutiens financiers, matériel et de notoriété pour la startup. Les intérêts stratégiques, technologiques et économiques en termes d'innovation ont été assez largement étudiés dans la littérature mais les mécanismes de transfert de légitimité de l'un à l'autre beaucoup moins. Notre recherche vise précisément à contribuer à la compréhension des relations entre startup deeptech et grandes entreprises sous l'angle de la légitimité. Nous nous intéresserons à des startups particulières, les deeptech, considérées comme garantes de l'avenir et du rayonnement de la performance économique française. Deux études longitudinales portant attention aux mécanismes de légitimité, l'une de la startup et l'autre de la grande entreprise seront réalisées pour les comparer. Une contribution de ce travail est d'apporter le cadre théorique de la légitimité à une compréhension plus approfondie du management de l'innovation dans la relation startup-GG. |
| Keywords: | deeptech, grandes entreprises, légitimité, innovation, incubateur corporate |
| Date: | 2025–06–25 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05242650 |
| By: | Fichter, Klaus; Neumann, Thomas; Olteanu, Yasmin; Grothey, Tim |
| Abstract: | Ein zentrales Element dieser Forschung des Borderstep Instituts ist die systematische Langzeitvermessung des grünen Gründungs-Ökosystems in Deutschland. In diesem Jahr werden die daraus gewonnenen Erkenntnisse als „Green Startup Report 2025“ veröffentlicht. Die Studie markiert einen Meilenstein: Zum ersten Mal kommt eine neue, wissenschaftlich validierte Methodik zum Einsatz, die eine deutlich präzisere Analyse der Dynamik grüner Start-ups ermöglicht. Die Grundlage bilden Daten zu mehr als 12.000 jungen Unternehmen sowie über 50.000 Handelsregistereinträgen zu Investitionen in Start-ups. Damit bietet der Green Startup Report 2025 ein bislang unerreichtes Maß an empirischer Tiefe und ermöglicht fundiertere Aussagen über die Entwicklung nachhaltiger Geschäftsmodelle, ihre Marktchancen und ihren tatsächlichen Beitrag für den Klimaschutz. Die Analyse macht deutlich: Grüne Start-ups sind relevante Akteurinnen und Akteure der nachhaltigen Transformation. Sie entwickeln marktbasierte Lösungen für Umwelt- und Klimaschutz. Durch ihr unternehmerisches Handeln leisten sie einen messbaren Beitrag zur Erreichung nationaler und europäischer Klimaziele. |
| Keywords: | Sustainable Entrepreneurship, Gründungs-Ökosystem, Nachhaltige Geschäftsmodelle, Marktchancen, Klimaschutz, Start-ups, Transformation, Klimaziele |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esrepo:325848 |