Modelling regional start-up activity in Austria and Germany

Abstract

"Most studies dealing with determinants of new firm formation neglect a possible spatial dependency of the data. The aim of the paper is to compare the traditional statistical methods commonly used in previous literature with spatial econometric methods and to test if the more sophisticated methods lead to different results. Using methods of exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) we first detect and visualise the spatial character of new firm formation processes in Austria and Germany which are very different with regard to spatial aspects. Our econometric analyses reveal strong spatial interdependencies in both countries. The fit of models always improves when taking into account the spatial character of the data. However, the differences between simple OLS models and spatial models are relatively small." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Breitenecker, R. & Weyh, A. (2013): Modelling regional start-up activity in Austria and Germany. A comparison of traditional and spatial econometric methods. In: International journal of entrepreneurial venturing, Vol. 5, No. 2, p. 195-211.