Publication: What Does 'Entrepreneurship' Data Really Show?
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Date
2008
ISSN
0921898X
Published
2008
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In this paper, we compare two datasets designed to measure entrepreneurship: The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) dataset and the World Bank Group Entrepreneurship Survey (WBGES) dataset. We find a number of important differences when the data are compared. First, GEM data tend to report significantly higher levels of early stage entrepreneurship in developing economies than do the World Bank business entry data, while the World Bank business entry data tend to be higher than GEM data for developed countries. Second, we find that the magnitude of the difference between the datasets across countries is related to the local institutional and environmental conditions for entrepreneurs, after controlling for levels of economic development. Our findings suggest that entrepreneurs in developed countries have greater ease and incentives to incorporate, both for the benefits of greater access to formal financing and labor contracts, as well as for tax and other purposes not directly related to business activities.
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Publication What Does "Entrepreneurship" Data Really Show? A Comparison of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and World Bank Group Datasets(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-07)This paper compares two datasets designed to measure entrepreneurship. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor dataset captures early-stage entrepreneurial activity; the World Bank Group Entrepreneurship Survey dataset captures formal business registration. There are a number of important differences when the data are compared. First, GEM data tend to report significantly greater levels of early-stage entrepreneurship in developing economies than do the World Bank data. The World Bank data tend to be greater than GEM data for developed countries. Second, the magnitude of the difference between the datasets across countries is related to the local institutional and environmental conditions for entrepreneurs, after controlling for levels of economic development. A possible explanation for this is that the World Bank data measure rates of entry in the formal economy, whereas GEM data are reflective of entrepreneurial intent and capture informality of entrepreneurship. This is particularly true for developing countries. Therefore, this discrepancy can be interpreted as the spread between individuals who could potentially operate businesses in the formal sector - and those that actually do so: In other words, GEM data may represent the potential supply of entrepreneurs, whereas the World Bank data may represent the actual rate of entrepreneurship. The findings suggest that entrepreneurs in developed countries have greater ease and incentives to incorporate, both for the benefits of greater access to formal financing and labor contracts, as well as for tax and other purposes not directly related to business activities.Publication Entrepreneurship : New Data on Business Creation and How to Promote It(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-08)The World Bank Group Entrepreneurship Survey continues to extend our knowledge of the importance of entrepreneurship for a dynamic economy. In its second year, with more countries participating, the survey again shows a strong relationship between entrepreneurship, the business environment, and governance. New data shed light on how the distribution of businesses among sectors varies by level of development. And analysis of new data on business registration suggests that automation can greatly reduce the barriers to starting a business. This finding makes a strong case for pursuing e-government initiatives to spur entrepreneurship.Publication Entrepreneurship(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-11)Entrepreneurship is important for the continued dynamism of modern economies and for job creation. Policymakers need to know how new firms get started and what financial and institutional factors promote entrepreneurial activity. A new cross-country, time-series data set shows a strong correlation between entrepreneurship and the quality of the legal and regulatory environment, ease of access to finance, and prevalence of informality. This finding tells policymakers what they can do to promote entrepreneurship.Publication Entrepreneurship in Post-conflict Transition: The Role of Informality and Access to Finance(2011)We examine new self-employment entry and its viability in Bosnia and Herzegovina, using a rich household survey for the years 2001-2004. We find that wealthier households are more likely to engage in viable self-employment and create employment suggesting an important role for financing constraints. Specifically, although having an existing bank relationship is not significantly related to the entry decision, it is positively related to the survival for new entrepreneurs and their employment creation. We also find a non-linear relationship between remittances and entry in that individuals not receiving remittances are more likely to enter self-employment; but, if they do receive them, the likelihood of starting a business increases in the fraction of wealth received from domestic remittances. Finally, people working in the informal sector are more likely to become viable entrepreneurs, particularly those provided with loans from micro-credit organizations. These findings support the perception of the informal sector as an incubator for formal self-employment in the early years of transition.Publication Entrepreneurship around the World--Before, During, and After the Crisis(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2014-08)The 2014 World Bank entrepreneurship database provides a unique indicator of new business registration, allowing the measurement of entrepreneurial activity across economies and over time. The most recent data show that by 2012, only 56 percent of economies around the world had reached the level of new firm creation that they had achieved before the global financial crisis hit in 2007. The pace of new firm creation has been slightly stronger in developing than in developed economies. And the share of economies with year-on-year growth in the rate of firm creation is now higher in the developing than in the developed world.
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