| Abstrakt: |
Since 2011, The Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI) has measured the health of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in several countries. The index combines multiple dimensions of the entrepreneurial environment and classifies the data into three main areas: attitudes, abilities and aspirations. The attitudes component measures the local population's attitudes toward entrepreneurship, and weights it using institutional variables. The abilities component measures a set of important characteristics regarding the entrepreneur's abilities and the business technological profile. The aspirations component measures innovation, technological transfer and diffusion. Our investigation, however, has identified a lack of studies that test the possible linkage between the GEI components. Given the importance of this research field, we aim to assess the relationship between attitudes, abilities and aspirations in the entrepreneurship ecosystem. Based on annual data for the GEI from 2011 to 2017, we propose a structural model to identify the effects of attitudes and abilities on entrepreneurial aspirations. Assuming that the structural relationship between attitudes, abilities and aspirations might differ across countries, the model is estimated using quantile regression in a panel data setting. Control variables were included, in addition to dummy variables that identify the particular effect of attitudes and abilities over different regions, such as Europe and Latin America. Our findings show a positive effect of attitudes and abilities on aspirations; however, the magnitude is significantly different across quantiles. Furthermore, the effect of the European region is positive and significant only for lower quantiles. This effect declines and becomes negative in the right tail, reflecting the reduction of entrepreneurial aspirations in countries with high GEI results. Specific policies are needed to reverse the declining trend of aspirations in European countries. These findings may be useful for formulating public policies involving entrepreneurship and also contribute to the debate about the effects of attitudes and abilities on different levels of entrepreneurial aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
