nep-ent New Economics Papers
on Entrepreneurship
Issue of 2025–10–13
seven papers chosen by
Marcus Dejardin, Université de Namur


  1. Informal Entrepreneurship: Institutional Drivers and Productivity Consequences By Erkko Autio; Kun Fu; Donghyun Park; Shu Tian
  2. Drivers of New Business Creation in the OECD: The Role of Education and Taxation By António Afonso; M. Carmen Blanco-Arana; Ana J. Cisneros-Ruiz
  3. Entrepreneurship, Economy and Inequality: Evidence from China’s Return-Home Policy By Liu Cui; Yit Wey Liew; Muhammad Habibur Rahman
  4. R&D Subsidy and Import Substitution: growing in the shadow of protection By Gustavo de Souza; Gabriel Garber
  5. Credit and Product Innovation in Emerging Markets: Evidence from India By Siddharth George; Mr. Divya Kirti; Nils Olle Herman Lange; Maria Soledad Martinez Peria; Rajesh Vijayaraghavan
  6. Population Aging and Business Successions: A Macroeconomic Perspective By Daisuke MIYAKAWA; Koki OIKAWA; Kozo UEDA
  7. Refounding the company as a social institution:democratizing employee ownership in French SMEs through collective transfers to employees By Arnault Violet

  1. By: Erkko Autio (Imperial College London); Kun Fu (Loughborough University London); Donghyun Park (Asian Development Bank); Shu Tian (Asian Development Bank)
    Abstract: Using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and World Bank data, we produce a novel estimation for the prevalence of informal entrepreneurship in 60 countries in the period 2006– 2022. Using a real option framework, we test the effect of business regulation, property rights protection, and the rule of law on formal and informal entrepreneurship prevalence. Finally, we test the influence of a country’s informal entrepreneurship rate on entrepreneurial growth aspirations by individuals. We find that burdensome business regulations increase informal entry relative to formal entry. We also find that stronger property rights and rule of law encourage formal entrepreneurship and discourage informal entrepreneurship. Further, the analysis finds that a high rate of informal entrepreneurship discourages entrepreneurs’ growth aspirations and negatively moderates the relationship between the entrepreneur’s gender and growth aspirations.
    Keywords: informal entrepreneurship;institutions;business regulation;rule of law;property rights;entrepreneurial growth aspirations;multilevel
    JEL: L26 E26 O43
    Date: 2025–10–06
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbewp:021669
  2. By: António Afonso; M. Carmen Blanco-Arana; Ana J. Cisneros-Ruiz
    Abstract: The main aim of this paper is to empirically assess the impact of education and tax revenue onfostering new business creation in the OECD countries. To this end, we employ fixed effects and random effects models using panel data from 2006 to 2022, incorporating alternative conditions. Results confirm that while education and the economic situation are key pillars in fostering new business creation, the role of tax revenue in supporting economic development – and, by extension, new business formation – is fundamental, even if non-linear, with a threshold of 30% of GDP. Tax revenue collected by governments provides essential funding for public goods and services such as infrastructure, education, and innovation support programs, all of which contribute to creating an environment where new businesses can emerge and thrive. Our findings remain robust under the GMM estimation.
    Keywords: new business, tax revenue, education, economic growth, panel data
    JEL: C23 H2 I2 M20
    Date: 2025
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12180
  3. By: Liu Cui (Zhejiang University); Yit Wey Liew (Sunway University); Muhammad Habibur Rahman (Durham University)
    Abstract: This study examines the economic and distributional effects of China’s National Pilot Program for Returnee Entrepreneurship, which encourages rural migrants to return to their hometowns for business creation and employment. Drawing on county-level socioeconomic indicators and nationally representative household survey data, we find that the program substantially boosted local economic development. Yet the gains were uneven as household-level analysis reveals a significant rise in within-county inequality. The mechanism operates through unequal access to capital, skills, and risk tolerance, enabling better-endowed households to capture a disproportionate share of the benefits. These findings underscore a key policy trade-off: while returnee entrepreneurship initiatives can stimulate aggregate growth, they may simultaneously exacerbate disparities within rural communities
    Keywords: Labor migration, Economic development, Inequality
    JEL: J61 O15 D63 L26
    Date: 2025–09
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dur:durham:2025_03
  4. By: Gustavo de Souza; Gabriel Garber
    Abstract: We study the effect of an innovation subsidy on the long-run growth of firms in a developing country. Using administrative microdata from Brazil and a quasi-experimental design that compares near-winners to near-losers of R&D subsidy applications, we find that the program had a persistent effect on firm size: fourteen years after receiving the subsidy, subsidized firms were 59% larger. The effect is strongest among small and young firms facing high borrowing costs, which is consistent with the subsidy alleviating financial constraints. This growth, however, did not come from firms developing frontier innovations. Instead, firms used the subsidy to expand their product lines into high-tariff markets, producing local versions of foreign goods.
    Date: 2025–10
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bcb:wpaper:631
  5. By: Siddharth George; Mr. Divya Kirti; Nils Olle Herman Lange; Maria Soledad Martinez Peria; Rajesh Vijayaraghavan
    Abstract: We study how access to bank financing affects product innovation in a developing country context by analyzing a reform that broadened credit eligibility for many small Indian manufacturing firms. Newly eligible firms borrow more but, on average, do not introduce new or more complex products or expand product scope. Many firms appear to operate below efficient scale and use credit to expand existing product lines rather than innovate. Moreover, most firms face several additional barriers that weaken the impact of credit on innovation. Among firms that do not face these additional barriers, credit access boosts innovation, as in advanced economies.
    Keywords: Innovation; SMEs; financial frictions; market barriers
    Date: 2025–09–26
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2025/192
  6. By: Daisuke MIYAKAWA; Koki OIKAWA; Kozo UEDA
    Abstract: This paper studies how population aging shapes firm dynamics and macroeconomic outcomes through business succession. Using large-scale Japanese firm-level panel data, we document systematic age transition patterns in successions, an inverted U-shape in performance with respect to managerial age, and the causal effects of succession on firm outcomes. Building on these facts, we develop a general equilibrium model with heterogeneous firms and life-cycle managerial ability. The model shows that declining population growth reduces succession but raises average managerial ability and strengthens firm selection. Quantitative analysis suggests that despite lower aggregate output, per capita output increases under demographic decline.
    Date: 2025–10
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:25096
  7. By: Arnault Violet (AMU - Aix Marseille Université, Académie d'Aix-Marseille, CERGAM - Centre d'Études et de Recherche en Gestion d'Aix-Marseille - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - UTLN - Université de Toulon, AMU IAE - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (IAE) - Aix-en-Provence - AMU - Aix Marseille Université, AMU ECO - Aix-Marseille Université - Faculté d'économie et de gestion - AMU - Aix Marseille Université)
    Abstract: The long-term survival of France's SMEs is a major economic and social challenge. The ageing of business owners, coupled with a decline in the number of company takeovers, threatens many SMEs, weakening the local economic fabric. Employee ownership, through collective transfers to employees, appears to be a relevant solution, enabling employees to buy out their company together. Despite its potential, collective transfers to employees are struggling to develop in French SMEs. Specific schemes such as the FCPE de reprise or the SCOP d'amorçage exist, but their implementation has often ended in failure, in contrast to international models such as the ESOP plan in the United States. This raises the question of the obstacles and levers to the development of employee ownership in French SMEs, as part of a collective transfer to employees. To answer this question, our research is based on an exploratory qualitative study of interviews with experts. This article highlights the obstacles and levers influencing the development of collective transfers of SMEs to employees, both in terms of existing schemes in France, such as the FCPE de reprise and the SCOP d'amorçage, and in terms of more structural dynamics on a national scale. Lastly, it suggests possible reforms to enhance the effectiveness and spread of the FCPE de reprise, with a view to conceiving the company as a social institution.
    Abstract: La survie à long terme des PME françaises constitue un enjeu économique et social majeur. Le vieillissement des dirigeants, conjugué à la baisse du nombre de reprises d'entreprises, menace de nombreuses PME et fragilise le tissu économique local. L'actionnariat salarié, à travers les transmissions collectives aux salariés, apparaît comme une solution pertinente, permettant aux employés de racheter collectivement leur entreprise. Malgré ce potentiel, les transmissions collectives aux salariés peinent à se développer dans les PME françaises. Des dispositifs spécifiques tels que le FCPE de reprise ou la SCOP d'amorçage existent, mais leur mise en œuvre s'est souvent soldée par des échecs, contrairement à des modèles internationaux comme le plan ESOP aux États-Unis. Cela soulève la question des obstacles et des leviers au développement de l'actionnariat salarié dans les PME françaises, dans le cadre de transmissions collectives aux salariés. Pour y répondre, notre recherche repose sur une étude qualitative exploratoire fondée sur des entretiens avec des experts. Cet article met en lumière les obstacles et leviers qui influencent le développement des transmissions collectives de PME aux salariés, tant en ce qui concerne les dispositifs existants en France, tels que le FCPE de reprise et la SCOP d'amorçage, qu'en ce qui concerne des dynamiques plus structurelles à l'échelle nationale. Enfin, il propose des pistes de réforme pour renforcer l'efficacité et la diffusion du FCPE de reprise, dans une perspective de refondation de l'entreprise en tant qu'institution sociale.
    Keywords: social institution, SME, collective transfer to employees, FCPE de reprise, employee buyout, employee stock ownership, employee ownership, capital concentration, responsible governance, economic sustainability, SCOP d'amorçage, employee ownership employee stock ownership employee buyout collective transfer to employees SME ESOP EOT SCOP cooperative responsible governance social institution economic sustainability wealth redistribution capital concentration economic inequality employee savings gift theory SCOP d'amorçage FCPE de reprise, cooperative, EOT, ESOP, SCOP d’amorçage, gift theory, employee savings, economic inequality, wealth redistribution, SCOP, rachat par les salariés, actionnariat salarié, transmission collective aux salariés, PME, coopérative, reprise entreprise, gouvernance responsable, institution sociale, durabilité économique, redistribution de la richesse, concentration du capital, partage de la valeur, inégalités économiques, épargne salariale, théorie du don
    Date: 2025–08–28
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05292818

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