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on Entrepreneurship |
| By: | Naudé, Wim (RWTH Aachen University) |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the relationship between capitalism and the decline in democracy in the West over the past quarter-century. Using data from the V-Dem Institute, Freedom House, and the World Inequality Database, a strong correlation is found between inequality, the rise of tech billionaires, and democratic erosion. This correlation is explained by describing how tech oligarchs grow their political influence through their digital platforms, and their societal control via surveillance and influence of sense-making. The pivot of tech oligarchs toward the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) will accelerate the erosion of democracy. The implication is that efforts to regulate the digital economy to protect democracy will not be effective unless accompanied by decisive measures to break up the oligarchy and dismantle the Permanent War Economy. |
| Keywords: | capitalism, inequality, oligarchy, democracy |
| JEL: | P16 D31 O33 O40 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18293 |
| By: | Cruz, Ronize (University of Coimbra); Nobre, Francisco (Kingston University London); Pereira dos Santos, João (ISEG) |
| Abstract: | We analyze how the proliferation of short-term rentals (STRs) affects firm survival, performance, and entry in two European cities with high STR density. Using administrative firm-level accounting data, a shift-share instrument, and an event-study design, we find that STR growth increases exit rates among underperforming firms, while surviving firms experience relative gains in sales and profits, with minimal effects on employment or investment. Operational costs, particularly rents and liabilities, also rise. STR expansion stimulates entrepreneurship, though new entrants face higher costs and lower initial profitability. These findings underscore the nuanced impacts of tourism-driven demand shocks on urban economic ecosystems. |
| Keywords: | tourism, local businesses, short-term rentals, Portugal |
| JEL: | R12 L25 L83 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18295 |
| By: | Jorge Cisneros Paz; Timothy Wojan; Matthew Williams; Jennifer Ozawa; Robert Chew; Kimberly Janda; Timothy Navarro; Michael Floyd; Christine Task; Damon Streat |
| Abstract: | Public-use microdata samples (PUMS) from the United States (US) Census Bureau on individuals have been available for decades. However, large increases in computing power and the greater availability of Big Data have dramatically increased the probability of re-identifying anonymized data, potentially violating the pledge of confidentiality given to survey respondents. Data science tools can be used to produce synthetic data that preserve critical moments of the empirical data but do not contain the records of any existing individual respondent or business. Developing public-use firm data from surveys presents unique challenges different from demographic data, because there is a lack of anonymity and certain industries can be easily identified in each geographic area. This paper briefly describes a machine learning model used to construct a synthetic PUMS based on the Annual Business Survey (ABS) and discusses various quality metrics. Although the ABS PUMS is currently being refined and results are confidential, we present two synthetic PUMS developed for the 2007 Survey of Business Owners, similar to the ABS business data. Econometric replication of a high impact analysis published in Small Business Economics demonstrates the verisimilitude of the synthetic data to the true data and motivates discussion of possible ABS use cases. |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2512.05948 |
| By: | Nicola Cortinovis |
| Abstract: | Entrepreneurs in rural areas face much greater difficulties than those located in cities, also with respect to the access to entrepreneurial finance. Recent developments in the provision of capital, however, have opened new opportunities for small firms and start-ups to obtain funding. In this empirical work, I hypothesize that crowdfunding provides crucial resources and support for rural-based entrepreneurs and that rural areas characterized by greater (bridging) social capital are better positioned to benefit from the opportunities of crowdfunding. Using a newly developed database linking crowdfunding campaigns to industry and counties in the U.S. (KIUS), county-level information on social capital and official U.S. census data, I test these hypotheses. My findings indicate that crowdfunding is indeed positively related to the number of ventures operating in the industry-location in the following period. In addition, this relationship is stronger for counties with higher levels of bridging social capital and of civic engagement. The results are robust to a number of checks, including a placebo test and matching exercises. |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2535 |
| By: | Yuxin Hu; Nektarios Oraiopoulos |
| Abstract: | The biotech venture market faces intense capital demands and regulatory scrutiny, yet academic research on VC networks remains rooted in software and consumer-tech contexts. This dissertation investigates how repeated co-investment ties and domain-expertise homophily influence a venture's exit likelihood, timing, and route amid the sector's pronounced technological and market uncertainty. Using a novel panel of 11, 680 biotechnology start-ups from the United States, Canada, and Europe (2010-2024), we apply pooled logit, Cox proportional-hazards, multinomial logit, and Fine-Gray competing-risk models. Our findings show that both average prior co-investment and investor homophily exhibit robust inverted-U relationships with exit outcomes. Moderate familiarity and scientific overlap maximize exit probability, while either sparse or excessive embedding reduces success. Governance mechanisms also play a crucial role: participation of a pharmaceutical corporate VC or a highly independent board flattens the negative effects of over-embedding, enabling syndicates to sustain exit momentum at higher levels of familiarity or homogeneity. Furthermore, the optimal degree of embeddedness is route-specific: IPOs require deeper coordination than trade sales, while acquisitions peak earlier and are less sensitive to homophily. These findings refine network-embeddedness theory in the life-science context, identify governance contingencies, and offer practitioners quantitative metrics to balance trust, expertise, and oversight in biotech financing. |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2512.10568 |
| By: | Heng-fu Zou (IAS, Wuhan University and World Bank) |
| Abstract: | We replace Weber's "spirit of capitalism" with a constitutional-cultural framework we call the republican spirit of innovism operating within a re-public of entrepreneurs. In such an order, ordinary people repeatedly propose, test, and lawfully imitate improvements under general, impersonal rules-secure property, open entry and exit, credible contract, and freedoms of speech and association. Building on Mises(calculation and residual claimancy), Hayek (discovery and dispersed knowledge), Kirzner (alertness and equilibration), and the historical evidence assembled by Mc Closkey, Mokyr, and Phelps, we argue that modern prosperity stems less from elite R&D or capital deepening and more from creative construction by the many. We derive empirical signatures-proposal density, feedback speed, and diffusion breadth-and outline a policy agenda favoring open standards, disclosure-oriented intellectual property, contestability, and re producibility. Case evidence from Britain (since 1700), the United States (since the 1780s), and contemporary technological and biomedical sectors shows that when rules keep feedback honest and imitation lawful, total factor productivity rises persistently. |
| Keywords: | republican spirit of innovism, republic of entrepreneurs, dispersed knowledge, entrepreneurial discovery, lawful imitation, diffusion, Industrial Enlightenment, bourgeois dignity, grassroots dynamism |
| JEL: | O31 O33 L26 O43 N10 |
| Date: | 2025–11–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cuf:wpaper:804 |
| By: | Hui, Xitong |
| Abstract: | Can rising asset prices reduce wealth inequality? This paper builds a continuous-time heterogeneous-agent general equilibrium in which entrepreneurs hold risky private capital and traditional savers hold safe assets. Safe-asset expansions—via financial innovation, public debt, or a stable equity bubble—operate through a single pass-through: they lower entrepreneurs’ undiversified risk exposure, compress risk premia, and raise the interest rate. This slows entrepreneurial wealth accumulation and redistributes wealth toward traditional savers, so inequality falls even as risky asset valuations rise. Savers gain unambiguously. Entrepreneurs’ welfare is state-dependent: when their wealth share is low, they prefer a higher risk premium and lose from safe-asset expansions; once sufficiently wealthy, they prefer a higher interest rate that protects a larger wealth base and gain. JEL Classification: D31, G12, E21, E44 |
| Keywords: | asset prices, interest rates, safe assets, wealth inequality, welfare |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20253162 |