Springer Empirical Analysis of Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth: 13 (International Studies in Entrepreneurship, 13)

The importance of entrepreneurship for achieving economic growth in contemporary economies is widely recognized, both by policy makers and economists. It is deeply embedded in the current European policy approach that the creativity and independence of entrepreneurs contribute to higher levels of economic activity. Indeed, according to the European Commission (2003, p. 9), "The challenge for the European Union is to identify the key factors for building a climate in which entrepreneurial initiative and business activities can thrive. Policy measures should seek to boost the Union's levels of entrepreneurship, adopting the most appropriate approach for producing more entrepreneurs and for getting more firms to grow. " Audretsch (2003, p. 5) states that "Entrepreneurship has become the engine of economic and social development throughout the world. " The relation between entrepreneurship and economic growth is embedded in several strands of the economic literature. A first strand of literature involves the general understanding of the role of entrepreneurship in the modern economy. Seminal contributions were made by Schumpeter (1934), Knight (1921) and Kirzner (1973). These economists stress different aspects of the role of the entrepreneur. While Schumpeter stresses the innovating aspect, Knight stresses the risk assuming aspect. Kirzner, finally, stresses the role of the entrepreneur in leading markets to equilibrium. Acs (1992) discusses the contribution of small firms in modern economies. Review From the reviews: “The main empirical contribution of the book consists of the chapters that analyse the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth at the cross-country level and the attempt to construct a harmonised dataset on business ownership. … one must recognise that the separate chapters are definitely of high quality and that they constitute an important empirical contribution to the entrepreneurship literature.” (Kristina Nyström, Papers in Regional Science, Vol. 87 (2), June, 2008) From the Back Cover The importance of entrepreneurship for achieving economic growth in contemporary economies is widely recognized, both by policy makers and economists. However, empirical evidence linking entrepreneurship to economic growth is scarce. Empirical Analysis of Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth investigates the relation between entrepreneurship and economic growth at the country and regional level. The work contributes to our understanding of how entrepreneurship may affect economic growth. Among others, it is investigated whether the impact of entrepreneurship on economic growth varies with the development level of an economy, with the sector of economic activity, and with the quantity and quality of entrepreneurial supply. Empirical evidence is provided showing that the impact is dependent upon all these three aspects.