Germany is one of the top business locations in Europe. First, thecountry is one of the most important markets in Europe in itself.Its more than 80m inhabitants make a huge number of consumers.And with a GDP constantly on the rise, there is quite somemoney to spend. At the same time, the gap...

The theory of endogenous technical change has deeply contributed to our understanding ofthe fundamental sources of economic growth and development. In this chapter we surveyimportant contributions in the field by focussing on the basic structure of endogenous growthmodels with horizontal as well...

This paper investigates whether the presence of ambitious entrepreneurs is a more important determinant of national economic growth than entrepreneurial activity in general. We use data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor to test the extent to which high growth ambitions of entrepreneurs...

Entrepreneurial activity is generally assumed to be an important aspect of the organization of industries most conducive to innovative activity and unrestrained competition. This paper investigates whether total entrepreneurial activity influences GDP growth for a sample of 36 countries. We test...

The increased importance of knowledge as a source of competitiveness for modern economies suggests that the organization of industries most conducive to innovative activity and unrestrained competition will be linked to higher growth rates. Entrepreneurial activity is generally assumed to be an...

This paper examines how Sweden and the United States have been impacted by philanthropic activities, commercialization of university-based knowledge and international entrepreneurship. The analysis comprises a detailed case study of Swedish and U.S. universities, as well as a statistical...

Recent theories of economic growth have stressed the role of externalities in generating growth. Using data from the Census Bureau that tracks all employers in the whole U.S. private sector economy, we examine the impact of these externalities, as measured by entrepreneurial activity, on...

The influence of industrial structure, more specifically of business ownership, is investigated on the level of unemployment in Japan. The question is to what extent business ownership, i.e., entrepreneurship, can reduce the level of unemployment. It will be concluded that Japan is hardly an...

In this paper we examine the sustainability of euro area public finances against thebackdrop of population ageing. We critically assess the widely used projections of theWorking Group on Ageing Populations (AWG) of the EU's Economic PolicyCommittee and argue that ageing costs may be higher than...

The issue of regulation and its adverse impacts upon small businesses has been noted by several organisations (Better Regulation Task Force, 1999, 2000a, 2000b, 2001; Small Business Council 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004; Small Business Service, 2004a). The recent ICAEW report on the 2004 Enterprise Survey...