Local industrial conditions and entrepreneurship
Subtitle: how much of the spatial distribution can we explain?
By: Edward L. Glaeser and William R. Kerr
Contributors: Kerr, William R. (William Robert); Harvard Business School
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 09-055; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 09-055
Publisher: Harvard Business School
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 52
Description: Why are some places more entrepreneurial than others? We use Census Bureau data to study local determinants of manufacturing startups across cities and industries. Demographics have limited explanatory power. Overall levels of local customers and suppliers are only modestly important, but new entrants seem particularly drawn to areas with many smaller suppliers, as suggested by Chinitz (1961). Abundant workers in relevant occupations also strongly predict entry. These forces plus city and industry fixed effects explain between sixty and eighty percent of manufacturing entry. We use spatial distributions of natural cost advantages to address partially endogeneity concerns.
Notes: "October 2008"--Publisher's web site.

Includes bibliographical references.