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There is little research on the relationship between welfare policies and immigrant entrepreneurship. Accordingly, this paper examines changes in three welfare domains: child‐care, health/medical insurance, and unemployment insurance in the context of France since roughly the 1980s, but with a focus on the 21st century. Given changes in French welfare policy, I show that immigrants' greater access to fluctuating, sometimes declining, but overall increasing spending in the three domains, can be positively correlated with slowly increasing immigrant entrepreneurship since the early 2000s. However, I also argue that welfare policies do not seem to have a significant effect on the levels and survival of immigrant‐owned firms in France. The findings of this paper should nonetheless be taken with extreme caution in light of the obstacles to analyzing this relationship. As a consequence, I provide an assessment of three possible research designs as a route towards better understanding this relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a unique sample of 444 entrepreneurial IPOs in the UK and France, this paper analyses the investment patterns and the stock-market performance effects of two types of early stage investors: venture capitalists (VCs) and business angels (BAs). Extending existing research, we identify important endogeneity and institutional effects. Our findings indicate that UK IPOs have a higher retained ownership and lower participation ratio by BAs, but a lower retained ownership and participation ratio by VCs than in France. BA and VC investments are substitutes, and they are endogenously determined by a number of firm- and founder-related factors, such as founder ownership and external board ‘interlocks’, and underwriter reputation. UK VCs are effective third-party certifying agents who reduce underpricing in UK IPOs, whereas in French IPOs they increase it by appearing to engage in grandstanding. This certification effect is more significant in UK IPOs involving both high VC and BA ownership. Finally, underpricing increases with VC participation ratio, where the higher exit of VCs seems to increase the risk premium required by outside investors, in particular in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the link between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and entrepreneurial orientation (EO). EO is known to be a crucial factor for small firm survival and growth, conceptualised as a business characteristic but influenced by the personality of the small business owner and measured at her individual level. There is ample anecdotal evidence claiming that ADHD symptoms have helped entrepreneurs in their careers. Using a data set of French small firm owners, we are the first to go beyond the anecdotal level in linking ADHD symptoms and EO. Our study contributes to our understanding of entrepreneurship, particularly the determinants of EO, and to “destigmatising” ADHD, which is considered solely a clinical disorder that should be treated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States and France have very similar labor productivity levels while there are considerable differences between the firm-size distributions and firm dynamics in the two countries. To reconcile these observations we introduce a joint model of endogenous entrepreneurship and firm-size dynamics with firing costs, unemployment benefits, entry costs, and a tax wedge between wages and labor costs. We use our model to analyze the role of these rigitidies in explaining firm dynamics and productivity patterns in the United States and France. We find that our model with all rigidities goes a long way in accounting for firm-size differentials between the United States and France while generating similar labor productivity outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]