IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/jrp/jrpwrp/2008-007.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

What Does "Entrepreneurship" Data Really Show?

Author

Listed:
  • Zoltan J. Acs

    (George Mason University and Max Planck Institute of Economics)

  • Sameeksha Desai

    (Max Planck Institute of Economics and George Mason University)

  • Leora Klapper

    (The World Bank, Development Research Group)

Abstract

We compare two "entrepreneurship" datasets: Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) captures early-stage entrepreneurship and World Bank Group Entrepreneurship Survey (WBGES) captures business registration. GEM data is higher in developing economies than WBGES data, but this reverses in developed countries. We find differences related to local institutional conditions, after controlling for economic development. A possible explanation is WBGES measures formal entry, whereas GEM measures intent. This can be interpreted as the spread between individuals who could potentially operate businesses in the formal sector - and those that actually do. Our findings suggest entrepreneurs in developed countries have greater ease and incentives to incorporate.

Suggested Citation

  • Zoltan J. Acs & Sameeksha Desai & Leora Klapper, 2008. "What Does "Entrepreneurship" Data Really Show?," Jena Economics Research Papers 2008-007, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    • Handle: RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2008-007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://oweb.b67.uni-jena.de/Papers/jerp2008/wp_2008_007.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Simeon Djankov & Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2002. "The Regulation of Entry," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(1), pages 1-37.
    2. Zoltan Acs & José Amorós, 2008. "Entrepreneurship and competitiveness dynamics in Latin America," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 31(3), pages 305-322, October.
    3. Klapper, Leora & Laeven, Luc & Rajan, Raghuram, 2006. "Entry regulation as a barrier to entrepreneurship," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(3), pages 591-629, December.
    4. Kevin M. Murphy & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1991. "The Allocation of Talent: Implications for Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 503-530.
    5. Baumol, William J., 1996. "Entrepreneurship: Productive, unproductive, and destructive," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 3-22, January.
    6. Leora Klapper & Raphael Amit & Mauro F. Guillén, 2010. "Entrepreneurship and Firm Formation across Countries," NBER Chapters, in: International Differences in Entrepreneurship, pages 129-158, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Leora Klapper & Juan Manuel Quesada Delgado, 2007. "Entrepreneurship : New Data on Business Creation and How to Promote It," World Bank Publications - Reports 11163, The World Bank Group.
    8. Jonathan Levie & Erkko Autio, 2008. "A theoretical grounding and test of the GEM model," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 31(3), pages 235-263, October.
    9. Zoltan Acs & Laszlo Szerb, 2007. "Entrepreneurship, Economic Growth and Public Policy," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 109-122, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jonathan Levie & Erkko Autio, 2008. "A theoretical grounding and test of the GEM model," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 31(3), pages 235-263, October.
    2. Acs,Zoltan J. & Desai,Sameeksha Vishvanath & Klapper,Leora & Acs,Zoltan J. & Desai,Sameeksha Vishvanath & Klapper, Leora F, 2008. "What does"entrepreneurship"data really show ? a comparison of the global entrepreneurship monitor and World Bank group datasets," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4667, The World Bank.
    3. repec:ekd:006356:6689 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Sameeksha Desai, 2009. "Measuring Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2009-10, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. David Urbano & David Audretsch & Sebastian Aparicio & Maria Noguera, 2020. "Does entrepreneurial activity matter for economic growth in developing countries? The role of the institutional environment," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 1065-1099, September.
    6. Kim, Phillip H. & Li, Mingxiang, 2014. "Injecting demand through spillovers: Foreign direct investment, domestic socio-political conditions, and host-country entrepreneurial activity," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 210-231.
    7. David Urbano & Sebastian Aparicio & David Audretsch, 2019. "Twenty-five years of research on institutions, entrepreneurship, and economic growth: what has been learned?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 21-49, June.
    8. Deerfield, Amanda & Elert, Niklas, 2022. "Entrepreneurship and Regulatory Voids: The Case of Ridesharing," Working Paper Series 1426, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    9. Aparicio, Sebastian & Urbano, David & Audretsch, David, 2016. "Institutional factors, opportunity entrepreneurship and economic growth: Panel data evidence," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 45-61.
    10. Zoltan J. Acs & José Ernesto Amorós, 2008. "Introduction: The startup process," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 35(2 Year 20), pages 121-132, December.
    11. Charfeddine, Lanouar & Zaouali, Sana, 2022. "The effects of financial inclusion and the business environment in spurring the creation of early-stage firms and supporting established firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 1-15.
    12. Lee, Seung-Hyun & Yamakawa, Yasuhiro & Peng, Mike W. & Barney, Jay B., 2011. "How do bankruptcy laws affect entrepreneurship development around the world?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 505-520, September.
    13. Boudreaux, Christopher & Caudill, Steven, 2019. "Entrepreneurship, Institutions, and Economic Growth: Does the Level of Development Matter?," MPRA Paper 94244, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Lucas, David & Boudreaux, Christopher, 2018. "Federal Regulation, Job Creation, and the Moderating Effect of State Economic Freedom," MPRA Paper 92593, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Christopher J. Boudreaux & Boris Nikolaev, 2019. "Capital is not enough: opportunity entrepreneurship and formal institutions," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(3), pages 709-738, October.
    16. Ruta Aidis & Saul Estrin & Tomasz Mickiewicz, 2012. "Size matters: entrepreneurial entry and government," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 119-139, July.
    17. Herrera-Echeverri, Hernán & Haar, Jerry & Estévez-Bretón, Juan Benavides, 2014. "Foreign direct investment, institutional quality, economic freedom and entrepreneurship in emerging markets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(9), pages 1921-1932.
    18. Julien Hanoteau & Virginie Vial, 2014. "Grease or sand the wheel? The effects of individual bribe payments on aggregate productivity growth," EcoMod2014 6685, EcoMod.
    19. Boudreaux, Christopher & Nikolaev, Boris, 2018. "Shattering the glass ceiling? How the institutional context mitigates the gender gap in entrepreneurship," MPRA Paper 90402, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Barinova, Vera (Баринова, Вера) & Zemtsov, Stepan (Земцов, Степан) & Tsareva, Yulia (Царева, Юлия), 2018. "Review of Empirical Studies of Factors of Entrepreneurial Activity [Обзор Эмпирических Исследований Факторов Предпринимательской Активности]," Working Papers 031830, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Global Entrepreneurship Monitor; World Bank Group Entrepreneurship Survey; entrepreneurial intent; formal business registration; entry;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
    • O50 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - General
    • Y10 - Miscellaneous Categories - - Data: Tables and Charts - - - Data: Tables and Charts

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2008-007. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Markus Pasche (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.jenecon.de .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.