Economic theory suggests that numerous factors are affecting entrepreneurship (demographic, political, cultural, geographical, and economical). There has been a lot of research on this topic, and many factors have been identified as individually related to the level of entrepreneurship in a region or country. However, despite the fact that a large number of factors have been identified as individually related to new firm formation (NFF), no one has been able to give a definitive an-swer as to which factors are the most important for increased NFF and economic growth (Calido-ni et al. 2007). And differences across countries remain unexplored. (Freytag & Thurik 2007). This study takes a stab at both of these largely unexplored areas; trying to ascertain which vari-ables, out of 22 selected, appear to be the most relevant determinants of firm formation across countries today. Data on firm formation across countries from the WB‟s Entrepreneurship Survey was used to construct three measure of entrepreneurship. Stepwise regression was used to esti-mate the most significant variables. Three different measures of “entrepreneurship”, three mod-els, all yielded four significant variables in multivariate regression, some were overlapping be-tween the models for a total of eight variables found especially significant. One finding is particu-larly interesting in relation to Sweden; The cost of enforcing contracts was found to be one of the most important determinants of NFF, and since Sweden has relatively high costs of enforcing contracts; the combination of these two observation leads to a policy suggestion: If Sweden wants to increase NFF it should decrease the costs of enforcing contracts.

<p>Economic theory suggests that numerous factors are affecting entrepreneurship (demographic, political, cultural, geographical, and economical). There has been a lot of research on this topic, and many factors have been identified as individually related to the level of entrepreneurship in a region or country. However, despite the fact that a large number of factors have been identified as individually related to new firm formation (NFF), no one has been able to give a definitive an-swer as to which factors are the most important for increased NFF and economic growth (Calido-ni et al. 2007). And differences across countries remain unexplored. (Freytag & Thurik 2007). This study takes a stab at both of these largely unexplored areas; trying to ascertain which vari-ables, out of 22 selected, appear to be the most relevant determinants of firm formation across countries today. Data on firm formation across countries from the WB‟s Entrepreneurship Survey was used to construct three measure of entrepreneurship. Stepwise regression was used to esti-mate the most significant variables. Three different measures of “entrepreneurship”, three mod-els, all yielded four significant variables in multivariate regression, some were overlapping be-tween the models for a total of eight variables found especially significant. One finding is particu-larly interesting in relation to Sweden; The cost of enforcing contracts was found to be one of the most important determinants of NFF, and since Sweden has relatively high costs of enforcing contracts; the combination of these two observation leads to a policy suggestion: If Sweden wants to increase NFF it should decrease the costs of enforcing contracts.</p>

Formation of new firms is important, since new firms create jobs and economic growth. When entrepreneurs lack the financial resources which are needed to start a firm, they often turn to banks to borrow money. Previous research has shown that relationships between banks and new business borrowers most often are local and that the dependence on banks differs across industries. In light of this, the purpose of this paper is to investigate if local access to banks has a stronger relationship with the rate of new firm formation in some industries than in others. Based on cross-sectional data on all Swedish municipalities in 2009, a series of OLS regressions are estimated to test if variables used to describe the bank market in a municipality are related with the new firm formation rate, both in total and in different industry categories. The results show that the number of bank branches per capita is positively related with the total new firm formation rate. In regards to the inter-industry differences, the findings indicate that local access to banks is more important for new firm formation in some industries than in others.

This thesis is written with the purpose to analyze immigrants’ effect on new firm formation. Immigrants can ease future sustenance problems of decreasing population growth and growing life expectancy. Immigrants start new firms to a higher extent than ethnic Swedes. Two reasons to that immigrants start new firms is to get out of unemployment and to satisfy a demand of products preferred by certain groups. This thesis point out cultural and structural factors that contribute to higher immigrant new firm formation rates and what in general diverges from ethnic Swedes’ new firm formation. Also, push and pull effects are discussed. The ordinary and the advanced service sector in Sweden, where 76 % of all new firms were started in 2005, are studied. The result that emerged shows that immigrants from non-Nordic countries have a positive effect on new firm formation. However, people from FIND-countries (Finland, Iceland, Norway and Denmark) did not have a positive effect on new firm formation.

<p>This thesis is written with the purpose to analyze immigrants’ effect on new firm formation. Immigrants can ease future sustenance problems of decreasing population growth and growing life expectancy. Immigrants start new firms to a higher extent than ethnic Swedes. Two reasons to that immigrants start new firms is to get out of unemployment and to satisfy a demand of products preferred by certain groups.</p><p>This thesis point out cultural and structural factors that contribute to higher immigrant new firm formation rates and what in general diverges from ethnic Swedes’ new firm formation. Also, push and pull effects are discussed. The ordinary and the advanced service sector in Sweden, where 76 % of all new firms were started in 2005, are studied. The result that emerged shows that immigrants from non-Nordic countries have a positive effect on new firm formation. However, people from FIND-countries (Finland, Iceland, Norway and Denmark) did not have a positive effect on new firm formation.</p>

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse how bank branch closure has affected the formation of new firms and to explore the varying local relationships between the accessibility of bank branches and new firm formation in 290 Swedish municipalities. In the first paper, the effect of bank branch closure is examined through spatial econometric analysis, in particular, the fixed effects and the random effects spatial panel models. The findings of the first paper show that an increase in the weighted distance to the nearest bank branches due to bank branch closure negatively affects new firm formation, based on the random effects spatial panel model. The analysis also shows that spatial effects should be included in the analysis due to spill-over effects from neighbouring municipalities. In the second paper, the varying relationships between new firm formation and its determinants in 290 Swedish municipalities are examined through Geographically weighted regression (GWR). Mostly positive relationships with new firm formation are shown for firm density, human capital level, industry diversification level and percentage of immigrants living in the area. In contrast, mostly negative relationships are shown for weighted mean distance to the nearest bank branches, establishment size, unemployment rate, industry specialization. Spatially constrained multivariate clustering is also applied to group municipalities with similar conditions. Patterns in the industry composition and the location attributes are analysed for each cluster. / Syftet med denna avhandling är att analysera hur nedläggningen av bankkontorpåverkar frekvensen av nystartade företag och undersöker sambandet mellannystartsfrekvens och avståndet till närmaste bankkontor i Sveriges 290 kommuner.I avhandlingens första artikel studeras effekten av kontorsnedläggelse genom enrumslig ekonometrisk analys och rumsliga panel modeller. Resultaten visar att enökning av avståndet till närmaste bankkontor har en negativ påverkan pånyföretagandet. Vidare ger analysen vid handen att spatiala effekter bör inkluderasi analysen då det förekommer spill-over effekter från närliggande kommuner. Iavhandlingens andra artikel undersöks hur frekvensen av nystartade företag iSveriges 290 kommuner påverkas av ett antal olika faktorer, med hjälp av engeografiskt viktad regressionsmodell. Analysen visar att antalet befintliga företag,humankapital, näringslivets diversifiering, samt andelen invandrare, har ett positivtsamband med nystartsfrekvensen. Däremot finns det ett negativt samband mellannystartsfrekvens och avståndet till närmaste bankkontor, storleken bland debefintliga företagen, arbetslöshet och näringslivets specialisering. En multivariatklusteranalys har också genomförts där kommunerna fördelats över kluster medliknande egenskaper, där de ingående kommunerna har liknande förutsättningaroch strukturer. / <p>QC 20190923</p>

This dissertation explores how economic, organizational, and personal factors affect self-employment transitions, occupational decisions, and firm formation activities of individuals at different positions in the skill distribution. The first essay of my dissertation studies how local unemployment rates differentially affect entry into self-employment by individuals at different places in the skill distribution. The empirical results show a positive correlation between local unemployment rates and entry into self-employment for low-ability workers, but not for high-ability workers. Including employer size to eliminate possible distortions showed that the positive association between unemployment and self-employment among low-ability workers is in fact driven by the small firm effect. Controlling for firm size yields a negative association between unemployment and self-employment among high-ability workers. Effects of organizational capital, human capital and physical capital, on the firm formation activities of people at distinct skill levels depend on the type of the industry which is chosen for the new firm. Two types of industries, capital-intensive and ability-intensive, are utilized to explore this hypothesis in the second essay. A capital-intensive industry requires more physical investment, and consequently more funds, whereas, an ability-intensive industry requires more human capital. It is shown that high human capital requirements are associated with higher earnings among the most able individuals, and therefore makes them more likely to found firms in an ability-intensive industry. Wealthy people are more likely to establish both capital-intensive and ability-intensive firms, even though the amount of funds necessary for two industry types differs. Moreover, entry into both industries is predicted to happen later in life due to the removal of entry barriers constituted by required investment spending using savings when old. Empirical mixed results are observed. The third essay investigates earning differentials between future entrepreneurs and their non-entrepreneurial colleagues. Results show that high-ability firm-owners in an ability-intensive industry were earning more than those that remained in wage-work, whereas, low-ability firm-owners in a capital-intensive industry were earning less than those remaining in paid-work.