The geography of starts-ups in Sweden. The role of human capital, social capital and agglomeration

Figures & data

Figure 1. Start-up rates in Sweden.

Figure 2. Regional divisions.

Table 1. Description of variables (N = 2889) .

Name	Description	Mean	Std. Dev.	Min	Max
Dependent variables
StartUpRate	Number of municipal start-ups per 10,000 inhabitants	135.53	43.10	44.87	366.42
Independent variables – human factor
Entrepreneurial culture	Percentage share of entrepreneurs positively assessing local (municipal) attitudes towards entrepreneurship	43.15	13.78	5.26	87.00
Social capital	Number of associations registered in Bolagsverket per 1000 inhabitants	9.00	4.84	0.38	56.05
Human capital	Share of population with at least a Bachelor’s degree	0.12	0.06	0.05	0.46
Independent variables – agglomeration
Industrial specialization	Herfindahl specialization index	0.15	0.02	0.10	0.27
Density	Employee density, number of working population per km^2 on municipality level	66.05	308.01	0.11	3689.79
Controllers
Foreign	Share of foreign-born population for each municipality	0.10	0.05	0.02	0.40
Unemployed	Unemployment, share of population actively seeking employment	0.02	0.01	0.00	0.11
Public employed	Share of public employed on municipal level	0.34	0.07	0.15	0.56
Public salary	Average salary in public sector on municipal level (in 1000 SEK)	231.97	32.78	153.00	409.81
Municipality contracts	Share of external services purchased in municipalities compared to total cost of their operations	16.88	7.57	2.00	53.00

Table 2. Multilevel (ML) models on start-up rates in Swedish municipalities 2002–2012. Coefficients (b) and standard errors (SE) are reported.

	(1)	(2)	(3a)	(3b)	(3c)	(4a)	(4b)	(4c)
	Basic	Interaction	Interaction Metro	Interaction Close to a city	Interaction Peripheries	Full Metro	Full Close to a city	Full Peripheries
Human capital	0.513***	0.586***	0.537***	0.607***	0.710**	0.613***	0.805***	0.643**
	(12.25)	(7.31)	(4.21)	(4.07)	(3.11)	(3.69)	(4.76)	(2.83)
Social capital	0.0994***	0.232***	0.114	0.169	0.381***	0.0634	0.157	0.348**
	(4.75)	(3.93)	(1.10)	(1.67)	(3.37)	(0.50)	(1.39)	(3.10)
Entrepreneurial culture	0.0806***	0.125*	0.0790	0.0796	0.212	0.138	0.127	0.214
	(6.02)	(2.03)	(0.72)	(0.66)	(1.72)	(1.12)	(1.00)	(1.73)
Specialization	−0.407***	−0.966***	−2.647***	−1.062**	−0.837*	−2.669***	−1.469***	−0.882*
	(−7.43)	(−4.87)	(−5.62)	(−2.81)	(−2.29)	(−5.54)	(−3.45)	(−2.39)
Density	−0.199***	−0.197***	−0.176***	−0.321***	−0.173***	−0.135	−0.190	0.0246
	(−17.78)	(−17.35)	(−7.94)	(−15.99)	(−7.55)	(−1.02)	(−0.78)	(0.13)
Foreign population	0.0497	0.0458	0.0657	0.100*	0.0537	0.0540	0.0579	0.0583
	(1.84)	(1.69)	(1.10)	(2.22)	(1.28)	(0.88)	(1.22)	(1.32)
Unemployed	0.00109	−0.311*	−0.758***	−0.265	−0.247	−0.728***	−0.284	−0.196
	(0.16)	(−2.41)	(−3.45)	(−1.00)	(−0.85)	(−3.30)	(−1.07)	(−0.67)
Public employed	−0.156**	−0.151**	0.0298	−0.211**	−0.188	0.0331	−0.154*	−0.231*
	(−3.15)	(−3.05)	(0.41)	(−2.80)	(−1.79)	(0.46)	(−2.00)	(−2.16)
Public salary	0.684***	0.701***	0.914***	0.592***	0.786***	0.936***	0.675***	0.842***
	(10.21)	(10.38)	(7.94)	(5.83)	(5.43)	(8.00)	(6.45)	(5.77)
Municipal contracts	0.0276*	0.0270*	−0.00804	0.0424*	0.0365	−0.0118	0.0408*	0.0289
	(2.04)	(2.00)	(−0.30)	(2.09)	(1.48)	(−0.44)	(2.01)	(1.18)
Human capital *Unemployed		0.0174 (1.05)	0.00575 (0.24)	0.00824 (0.24)	0.0880 (1.54)	0.00141 (0.06)	0.0104 (0.30)	0.0911 (1.57)
Social capital *Unemployed		0.0307* (2.37)	0.00402 (0.19)	0.0442 (1.87)	0.0520 (1.82)	0.00545 (0.26)	0.0453 (1.93)	0.0597* (2.08)
Entrepreneurial culture *Unemployed		0.0126 (0.79)	−0.000657 (−0.03)	0.00485 (0.15)	0.0298 (0.87)	−0.00183 (−0.08)	0.00477 (0.15)	0.0234 (0.67)
Specialization *Unemployed		−0.125** (−2.86)	−0.424*** (−4.49)	−0.0816 (−1.03)	−0.121 (−1.35)	−0.404*** (−4.19)	−0.0934 (−1.16)	−0.101 (−1.10)
Human capital *Density						−0.0297	−0.0929**	0.0364
						(−0.94)	(−2.82)	(1.06)
Social capital *Density						0.0181	0.0137	0.0675*
						(0.91)	(0.46)	(2.30)
Entrepreneurial culture *Density						−0.0186	−0.0231	−0.0266
						(−1.09)	(−1.18)	(−1.50)
Specialization						0.0283	0.137	0.0907
*Density						(0.64)	(1.17)	(1.20)
Constant	−3.415***	−4.969***	−9.909***	−3.262	−6.195**	−10.25***	−4.843*	−7.057**
	(−3.54)	(−4.35)	(−4.88)	(−1.72)	(−2.62)	(−4.95)	(−2.47)	(−2.98)
Between-region S.D.	−2.139***	−2.099***	−25.92	−1.932***	−1.678***	−24.47	−1.865***	−1.611***
	(−10.11)	(−10.01)	(.)	(−8.28)	(−8.08)	(−1.55)	(−8.18)	(−8.73)
Between-municipality S.D.	−1.621***	−1.608***	−1.506***	−1.788***	−2.098***	−1.495***	−1.789***	−2.219***
	(−30.10)	(−29.72)	(−17.22)	(−23.16)	(−10.05)	(−15.62)	(−23.26)	(−9.43)
Between-year S.D.	−1.993***	−1.999***	−2.289***	−1.932***	−1.924***	−2.292***	−1.939***	−1.928***
	(−142.73)	(−143.01)	(−87.36)	(−94.52)	(−67.95)	(−86.08)	(−94.68)	(−67.45)
Observations	2889	2889	829	1350	710	829	1350	710

Note: * p<0.10, ** p<0.05, *** p<0.01.

Table A1. Correlation matrix.

	StartUpRate	Entrepreneurial culture	Social capital	Human capital	Specialization	Density	Foreign	Unemployed	Public Employed	Salary
StartUpRate	1.00
Entrepreneurial culture	0.02	1.00
Social capital	0.34*	−0.26*	1.00
Human capital	0.11*	0.26*	0.10*	1.00
Specialization	−0.13*	0.17	−0.21*	−0.09*	1.00
Density	−0.33*	0.31*	−0.21*	0.63*	0.13*	1.00
Foreign	−0.16*	0.15*	−0.16*	0.28*	0.31*	0.59*	1.00
Unemployed	0.01	−0.25*	0.07*	−0.33*	−0.19*	−0.39*	−0.16*	1.00
Public employed	0.11*	−0.22*	0.34*	0.26*	−0.27*	−0.18*	−0.26*	0.17*	1.00
Public salary	−0.03	0.24*	−0.19*	0.48*	0.19*	0.48*	0.56*	0.02	−0.21*	1.00
Municipality contracts	0.22*	0.10*	0.18*	0.30*	0.03	0.24*	0.16*	−0.25**	−0.05*	0.22*

* p < 0.01.