Disentangling Institutional Determinants of Entrepreneurship
Claudia R. WilliamsonABSTRACT. This paper attempts to empirically disentangle the institutional determinants of several aspects of entrepreneurship. Recent literature independently links both formal and informal institutions to entrepreneurship but both types should be incorporated in the analysis. Economic freedom proxies for formal institutions. Informal institutions include trust and respect, obedience, social status of entrepreneurs, locus of control, and attitudes toward markets. The results suggest that various aspects of both informal institutions and economic freedom are important for entrepreneurial activity depending on the type of entrepreneurship under investigation. This analysis provides deeper insight into the relative importance of formal and informal rules for entrepreneurship as well as provides specifics on which institutions determine what types of entrepreneurship. pp. 40–66
Keywords: culture, informal institutions, economic freedom, entrepreneurship
JEL Codes: O43, P50, Z1