Drivers of Entrepreneurship: Linking with Economic Growth and Employment Generation (A Panel Data Analysis)

The need for entrepreneurship for economic development has always been crucial in the history of successful nations and developed economies because entrepreneurs are the leaders who invent innovative ideas that give spark to economic activities. Entrepreneurship is a key determinant of sustainable growth in modern times. Mostly jobs are produced by small businesses started by entrepreneurial mind persons, many of them set up large companies. Entrepreneurship is frequently expressed in terms of higher self esteem, to exercise creative freedoms, and an overall greater sense of control over their own lives. Many economists and educators believe that these types of experienced entrepreneurs foster the robust entrepreneurial culture that exploit personal and communal economic and social success at sub-national, national, and international level. A strand of literature explains different categories of entrepreneurship, which are of paramount importance in explaining the economic growth, employment and population. The task of this study is to identify those factors along with the role of education, Research and Development activities which significantly explain the entrepreneurial potential and skills and at the second stage, to examine the impact of those entrepreneurial skills on economic growth and employment. To complete the task, micro panel data approach with different economic models and econometric estimation techniques (i.e. Stepwise Least Square with Forward Selection method and Pooled Least Square without random and fixed effects) is used. The panel data includes the observations on eight upper middle and lower middle income countries over the period ranging from 2005 to 2011.