L26 - EntrepreneurshipReturn

The article aims to analyse the effects of the start-up subsidy programme for unemployed in the Czech Republic, which is provided by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. We explored to what extent participants in the programme in 2014 returned to unemployment three years after the end of the programme, i.e., 2014-2017. Methodologically, we conducted counterfactual impact analysis, where we matched participants in the programme with those who were not supported by any measures of active labour market policy. The results show that participants in the programme return to unemployment to a lesser extent. In total, they spent fewer days in unemployment during the follow-up period, and they returned to unemployment fewer times when compared with non-participants. Overall, 91.3% of participants never returned to unemployment during the analysed period. These results can be interpreted as a positive outcome of the programme. The article also offers implications for targeting the programme and for future research.

The paper deals with early entrepreneurial activity of individuals. It is focused both on entrepreneurs owning and managing a young firm and on nascent entrepreneurs who do steps towards launching a new venture. Demographic, socioeconomic, psychological and other factors influencing early entrepreneurial activity were analyzed based on data gathered from representative samples of adult population in the Czech Republic in 2006 (n = 2 001) and 2011 (n = 2 005). Unlike some earlier work on the subject, binary choice models were used in order to quantify the ceteris paribus effects of individual factors. Results showed that, ceteris paribus, men, people with higher entrepreneurial self-efficacy and people who know somebody else, who has launched a new business recently, more often involved in early entrepreneurial activity. The probability of such involvement grew, depending on the utilized model, till 36 to 46 years of age and decreased onwards. For both the phase of nascent entrepreneurship and that of start-up management, entrepreneurial status in society and the level of education were insignificant. Region and fear of failure played a larger role in nascent entrepreneurship, while gender and household income were significant factors related to the next phase of launching and managing a new business. Gender inequality related to start-up early management in between 2006 and 2011 increased. Overall, the study (1) shows robust findings concerning entrepreneurial entry in the Czech Republic, (2) differentiates between factors influencing nascent entrepreneurs and start-up owner-managers, and (3) provides policy recommendations for mitigating the negative role of entrepreneurial activity inhibiting factors.

What is the role of entrepreneurship in economic development from the perspective of neo-Austrian and new institutional economics and what is the difference between these approaches? Neo-Austrian economists claim that economic development is caused by entrepreneurial discovery. New institutional economists argue that structure of incentives determined by the institutional environment provides a guideline for entrepreneurial decision-making. Hence, an institutional environment that rewards rent-seeking does not provide opportunities for economic development. In this paper we offer a comparison of these approaches to show that both entrepreneurial discovery and institutional environment are closely related. Moreover, with the comparison we demonstrate that entrepreneurial decision-making plays more important role in economic development when an institutional change is taken into account.

The aim of the paper is to set the agency problem into a broad context of New Institutional Economics with an emphasis on historical connections. In the first section, I explain the historical evolution of basic theoretical concepts like the theory of firm, the theory of market process and the theory of property rights. The second section is dedicated to the explanation of the general concept of agency problem extended with the problem of asymmetric information leading to adverse selection and the problem of moral hazard, in context of previous historical connections. In the last section, the author provides some suggestions for the further theoretical and empirical research.

The aim of the paper is to introduce Kirzner's theory of entrepreneurial discovery as a complement and an alternative to the mainstream theory. In the first and the second sections, the author explains the main influences of Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich August von Hayek's works on entrepreneurial theory. Section three analyzes pure entrepreneurial profit and logical construction of theory as a complement to mainstream theory. To introduce the entrepreneurial market process as an alternative to mainstream theory, the fourth section begins by explaining Kirzner's approach to the critique of the possibilities for economic calculation in the system of public ownership of the means of production and his theory of monopoly. The last section is a conclusion.