Two decades of European Entrepreneurship: Is the answer to who makes an entrepreneur different over time and countries?

Abstract

Europe has become increasingly entrepreneurial over the last generation with a substantial rise in the numbers of working people choosing an entrepreneurial career path. This dynamic reflects longer-term changes in the nature of work itself and profound changes in the composition of the labour force. In this paper we consider two basic research questions: Who makes an entrepreneur? And, how has this changed over time and across countries? Using 1995 as our reference point this research examines how the demographics of people who choose an entrepreneurial career path has changed over a 20 year period, focusing particularly on gender, age, and educational dynamics. We find that the gender ‘gap’ has diminished in Old Europe but remains large in New Europe. Further, we re-iterate the importance of formal and informal human capital in the determination of self-employment. But we also find that economic and political turbulence matter, and both have a slow, but increasing effect on the rate of self-employment.