Van Stel A. J. and Nieuwenhuijsen H. R. (2004) Knowledge spillovers and economic growth: an analysis using data of Dutch regions in the period 1987-1995, Reg. Studies 38, 393-407. The importance of knowledge spillovers for achieving innovation and economic growth is widely recognized. It is not...

This paper presents characteristics of firms that employ advanced manufacturing technology (AMT), explores the pattern of adoption of such technology, and traces the effects of adoption on the evolution of employment and productivity. The study uses linked firm-level data on production, factor...

This paper re-examines the link between new firm formation and subsequent employment growth. It investigates whether it is possible to have the wrong type of entrepreneurship – defined as new firm formation which leads to zero or even negative subsequent employment growth. It uses a very...

Purpose – Administrative burdens are known to be a major business constraint for incumbent small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in modern economies. Far less is known about the influence of these burdens on the start‐up of new firms. The current paper aims to examine to what extent...

Following a centuries-long decline in the rate of self-employment, a discontinuity in this downward trend is observed for many advanced economies starting in the 1970s and 1980s. In some countries, the rate of self-employment appears to increase. At the same time, crosssectional analysis shows a...

This paper examines the impact of employment protection legislation (EPL) on hiring decisions by own-account workers and firing decisions by very small firms (one to four employees). Using data from the EU-15 countries, our results show that the strictness of employment protection legislation is...

This paper examines the interrelations between self-employment and unemployment rates for Spain in the period 1972-2004, comparing them with the general pattern observed for OECD countries. We apply the model as proposed by Audretsch, Carree, van Stel and Thurik (2005) to Spain. The divergence...

This paper investigates the dynamic relationship between self-employment and unemployment rates. On the one hand, high unemployment rates may lead to start-up activity of self-employed individuals (the 'refugee' effect). On the other hand, higher rates of self employment may indicate increased...

Spain is destroying more jobs than any other European country. In the third quarter of 2009, the unemployment rate stood at 17.9%, the second-highest rate in the 27-nation EU and the highest rate in the euro area (EA-16). The exponential growth of the Spanish unemployment rate is the by-product...