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We examine the impact of the Global Crisis on entrepreneurial aspirations and entrepreneurial attitudes. We focus on three aspiration variables (Growth Expectation early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity, New Product early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity, and International Orientation early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity), and eight attitude variables (Entrepreneurial Intention, Entrepreneurship as Desirable Career Choice, Fear of Failure Rate, High Status Successful Entrepreneurship, Know Startup Entrepreneur Rate, Media Attention for Entrepreneurship, Perceived Capabilities, and Perceived Opportunities). Our results show that, two of the attitude variables have changed significantly three years after the crisis. Entrepreneurial Intention is significantly higher in 2011 (i.e. three years after the crisis started) when compared to 2008, and Know Startup Entrepreneur Rate is significantly lower in 2011 when compared to 2008. On the other hand, we find no significant change in any of the aspiration variables.

This paper summarizes the arguments and counterarguments within the scientific discussion on the issue of state and local governments’ support of small businesses in U.S. states. The main purpose of the research is to determine whether state or local government’s support positively affects entrepreneurial activity, firm growth, and business owner’s optimism in the United States. Non-parametric methods of estimation and analysis of statistical hypotheses were used as the methodological basis of the conducted research, based on which 41 country were analyzed. 2013 was chosen as the study period. The study of the impact of state support on business, company growth and optimism of business owners is carried out in the following logical sequence: each state is assigned to one of two groups, based on their estimates of the level of support of state authorities. First, each state is assigned into one of two groups based on their score on state government support. The states that have a score higher than the mean state were assigned into the “High-State Govt Support” group and the others were assigned into the “Low-State Govt Support” group. Then, the two groups were compared in terms of entrepreneurial activity, firm performance, and optimism. Then, the same procedure is followed for local government support. The study empirically confirmed that greater support from the state or local government has a positive effect on the growth and optimism of the firm. The article presents the results of an empirical analysis for small firms in these countries, which showed that government support is an important driver of company growth and business owner optimism. The paper presents the results of an empirical analysis for small firms in these states, which showed that government support is important for firm growth and owner’s optimism. The research empirically confirms and theoretically proves that more state or local government support positively affects firm growth and optimism. The results of the research can be useful for governments that consider supporting small businesses in their region/area. Keywords: entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, government support, growth, optimism, small business.

In this study, we examine the impact of the 2008-2009 Global Crisis on poverty rates across the globe. Our results are mixed. We find that, after the crisis, there was a marginally significant increase in the number of the poorest group of people (living on less than $1.25 a day at 2005 international prices) across the world. However, we do not find any significant increase in the number of people in the other low-income categories (living on less than $2, $2.50, $4, or $5). Although we do not find any significant increase in the poverty headcount ratios (the percentage of poor people in the population living on less than $1.25, $2, $2.50, $4, or $5), our results show that, interestingly, there has been a significant decrease in the national poverty headcount ratios (percentage of people living below the national poverty line which is based on estimates from household surveys) after the crisis. Overall, we suggest policymakers to focus on the poorest group of people during these hard times since this group is affected the most.

Regulations are shown to have a significant impact on entrepreneurial activity, especially on startups by smaller firms. Higher compliance costs are shown to deter small firms entering a new industry. In this study, using state-level regulation data in the U.S., we examine whether different types of regulations (including “health and safety regulations”, “employment regulations”, “tax code”, “licensing regulations”, “environmental regulations”, and “zoning regulations”) in each state deter smaller firms to do business in that state. We also examine whether each type of regulation deters firms to do business in certain industries or to operate in more or fewer states. Besides size, operational area, and industry, we also examine whether each type of regulation deters younger firms to do business in each state. Our results show that “health and safety regulations”, “employment regulations”, “tax code”, “licensing regulations”, and “environmental regulations” in a state affect firm size and industry, but do not affect operational area and firm age. In the states with high scores in these areas, there are fewer single-employee firms but more 2-20 employee firms when compared to the other states. Also, in the states with a high score in “environmental regulations”, we find fewer firms with 51 to 100 employees when compared to the other states. On the other hand, “zoning regulations” affect firm age and industry, but not operational area and firm size. In the states with high scores in “zoning regulations”, we find fewer firms that are established less than a year ago. Finally, in the states with high scores in regulations, generally, we find that more firms are in the “Business” industry and fewer firms are in the “Writing” industry. Overall, we show how each type of regulation deter certain types of firms operating in each state. This is important because if a state wants to attract certain types of firms (i.e., younger, or older firms, larger or smaller firms, or firms in certain industries), the officials in that state need to improve the corresponding regulations first.

In this study, we attempt to find the factors that influence small business owners’ optimism as well as their company’s success. For this purpose, we use a survey done by Kauffman foundation. This survey asks business owners about their state’s performance in areas like “ease of starting a business”, “ease of hiring”, “regulations”, and “training and networking programs”. It also asks business owners questions about their firm’s performance and their optimism for the future. We run several tests to see if business owners are more optimistic and more successful in states with a high score in each “business friendliness” area. We show that, in the states with a higher business friendliness composite score, both growth in revenue and growth in employees are higher and also owners tend to be more encouraging to others. Regression analyses support these findings (except for growth in employees). Our results indicate that growth in revenue is driven mainly by the Ease of Start score. In other words, the revenues of small businesses grow faster in the states with a better initial registration/establishment process. Our results also indicate that growth in the number of employees is driven mainly by the Overall Regulations score. In other words, small businesses grow faster (in terms of the number of employees) in the states with more favorable regulations. With respect to whether or not the owners would encourage others to start a business in their state, our results show that all subcomponents (Ease of Start, Ease of Hire, Overall Regulations, and Training and Networking programs) are important. The owners are more encouraging to others when Ease of Start, Ease of Hire, Overall Regulations, and Training and Networking programs are all favorable. Overall, we conclude that while all components of business friendliness have a positive relation with the small business owners’ optimism, the link between the business friendliness score and firm performance is weaker. Ease of Start is important for growth in revenues and optimism, Ease of Hire is important for optimism only, Overall Regulations are important for growth in the number of employees and optimism, and Training and Networking Programs are crucial for optimism. Keywords: regulations, business friendliness, small business, entrepreneurship, firm performance.

We examine the impact of the 1997 Asian Crisis on governance. We look into how the crisis affected High-Income OECD, High-Income Non-OECD, Upper-middle Income, Lower- Middle Income, and Low Income Countries. For measures of governance, we use the World Bank’s Governance Indicators dataset which includes six measures of governance. We find that pre- and post-crisis, the ranking of each income group has not changed except for year 2004 when the High-Income Non-OECD Countries surpassed the High-Income OECD Countries in “Political Stability and Absence of Violence” category. In other words, our results show that, other than that exception in 2004, both pre- and post-crisis, the High-Income OECD Countries had the best governance measures, the High-Income Non-OECD Countries had the second best measures, and so on, in the order shown above. One point to note here: The High-Income Non- OECD Countries performed much better than the other groups after year 1998. After 1998, this group improved in all six dimensions of governance. We conclude that although crises affect all income groups, because of certain characteristics of the High-Income Non-OECD group, they tend to better react to crises.