Types of Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth
Erik Stam & André van Stel
#2009-049
In this paper, we empirically investigate the effect of entrepreneurship
on economic growth at the country level. We use data from the Global
Entrepreneurship Monitor, which provides comparative data on
entrepreneurship from a wide range of countries. An important element of
this paper is that we compare the effects of entrepreneurial activity on
economic growth in high income, transition and low income countries.
This dataset also enables us to make a distinction between the effects
of entrepreneurship in general and growth-oriented entrepreneurship in
particular. We present empirical tests of the impact of entrepreneurial
activity on GDP growth over a four year period for a sample of 36
countries. Our empirical analyses suggest that entrepreneurship does not
have an effect on economic growth in low income countries, in contrast
to transition and high income countries where especially growth-oriented
entrepreneurship seems to contribute strongly to macroeconomic growth.
Keywords: entrepreneurship, growth-oriented entrepreneurship, economic
growth
JEL classification: L16, L26, M13, O11, O40, O57
UNU-MERIT Working Papers
ISSN 1871-9872