Creating a Policy Environment for Entrepreneurs
FRB of St. Louis Working Paper No. 2005-064B
34 Pages Posted: 8 Nov 2005
Date Written: March 2006
Abstract
This paper demonstrates that levels of entrepreneurship can be greatly affected by the general policy environment. Using a state-level panel, we estimate the effects of several policy variables on rates of entrepreneurship and find that bankruptcy exemptions, corporate tax rates, and the level of the minimum wage all affect a state's rate of entrepreneurship. For the median state, these policies reduced the level of entrepreneurship by 10.5 percent. Much of the geographic pattern of entrepreneurship can be explained by policy differences: The low-entrepreneurship states of the Great Lakes and the South tend to have relatively unfriendly policy environments, and the high-entrepreneurship states of the West tend to have relatively friendly policies. On the other hand, although New England states tend to have relatively unfriendly policy environments, they also tend to have high rates of entrepreneurship.
Keywords: entrepreneurship, government policy
JEL Classification: J23, R12
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Sticking it Out: Entrepreneurial Survival and Liquidity Constraints
By Douglas Holtz-eakin, David Joulfaian, ...
-
Entrepreneurial Decisions and Liquidity Constraints
By Douglas Holtz-eakin, David Joulfaian, ...
-
Liquidity Constraints, Household Wealth and Entrepreneurship
By Annamaria Lusardi and Erik Hurst
-
What Makes an Entrepreneur? Evidence on Inheritance and Capital Constraints
-
The Absence of the African-American Owned Business: An Analysis of the Dynamics of Self-Employment