Despite the benefits of international diversification investors continue to display a preference for home based investments. Given this preference we investigate whether it is possible to mimic the benefits of international diversification via domestically traded products. We test this from the...

We examined the relationship between firm births and job creation in Great Britain. We used a new data set for 60 British regions, covering the whole of Great Britain, between 1980 and 1998. The relationship between new firm start-ups and employment growth has previously been examined either...

This paper examines the relationship between firm births and job creation in Great Britain. We use a new data set for 60 British regions, covering the whole of Great Britain, between 1980 and 1998. The central theme of the paper is that, with the exception of a recent paper by Audretsch and...

The main contribution of entrepreneurship theory to economics is to provide an account of market performance in disequilibrium but little empirical research has examined firm entry and exit in this context. We redress this by modelling the interrelationship between firm entry and exit in...

This paper examines the relationship between entrepreneurship (as measured by fluctuations in the business ownership rate) and unemployment in Japan for the period between 1972 and 2002. We find that, although Japan’s unemployment rate has been influenced by specific exogenous shocks, the...

This report is part of the research program “SMEs and Entrepreneurship” which is financed by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Given the big employment losses in the current economic and financial crisis, not only the creation of new jobs is important for economic and social welfare, but also the conservation of existing jobs. In this respect, it is crucial that firms which employ personnel, survive. In this paper we...

This paper investigates whether start-up motivation (opportunity versus necessity) influences entrepreneurial performance of an important subset of entrepreneurs, viz. the solo self-employed. We also explore to what extent human capital measures mediate this relation. We use a unique...

We investigate the interplay between entrepreneurial activity, the business cycle and unemployment in relation to the openness of the economy. Also, we explore to what extent the observation frequency (quarterly versus annual data) influences estimation results. Following empirical literature,...

This paper examines the impact of employment protection legislation (EPL) on hiring decisions by own-account workers and firing decisions by very small firms (1-4 employees). Using data from the EU-15 countries, our results show that the strictness of employment protection legislation is...