The economics of new enterprises, the number of businesses and economic growth across the EU during 2008-2017

Abstract

The paper looks into five measures of entrepreneurship – namely, the birth rate of enterprises, the death rate of enterprises, the number of 3-year-old enterprises, the employment share of five-year-old enterprises, the average size of five-year-old enterprises- across the European Union from 2008 to 2017. The paper also econometrically analyses growth rates in the number of businesses and the Gross Domestic Product in each EU member-state in the 2008-2017 period and compares their long-run trends. Having noted a good number of similarities it makes a number of potentially useful recommendations on the basis of findings emanating from the birth and death rates of enterprises and other statistics in order to enhance business participation (hence, competition) and economic performance across the EU and beyond.