Factors Promoting Entrepreneurship in European Countries: Unemployment, Taxes, and Education

Abstract

This article will analyze empirically the relationship existing between economic growth and entrepreneurship at a European level, using the self-employment variable as an empirical proxy. To do so, the writer studies the existing bond between economic growth and certain determining factors such as public expenditure, investment, human capital, and entrepreneurship and also analyses the effects on entrepreneurship caused by such factors as unemployment, taxes, and education. This article uses data from twenty-one European countries, during the period from 2001 and 2011. The results obtained show a significant relationship between entrepreneurship and the three determining factors analyzed.

KEYWORDS:

• education
• entrepreneurship
• economic growth
• taxes
• unemployment