Economic Entrepreneurship, Startups and Their Effects on Local Development: The Case of Sweden

The current empirical entrepreneurship literature mainly shows a positive correlation between entrepreneurship (measured as the number of startups) and economic growth. However, the mechanisms by which entrepreneurship exerts its positive influence are not obvious. The net result of startups on employment or GDP can be negative, at least in the short run, since efficient, new companies may lead to closures of less efficient ones. Based on an assumption that economic entrepreneurship in the form of startups creates unobserved supply side effects on the firm level (Fritsch & Mueller 2004) and entrepreneurial social capital on community level (Westlund & Bolton 2003) this paper studies the connections between startups and local development at the municipal level in Sweden between 2000 and 2008. We use a unique database including not only total startups, but data on startups divided in six branches to study the impact of entrepreneurship on population and employment growth. Analyses are performed on all municipalities as well as by municipality type and by growth rate.

From Moscow with love

One of the less researched aspects of postcolonial India’s “progressive” culture is its Soviet connection. Starting in the 1950s and consolidating in the 1960s, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics invested in building up “committed” networks amongst writers, directors, actors, and other theater- and film-practitioners across India. Thus, an entire generation of cultural professionals was initiated into the anticolonial solidarity of emerging Afro-Asian nations that were seen, and portrayed, by the Soviets as being victims of “Western” imperialism. The aspirational figure of the New Soviet Man was celebrated through the rise of a new form of “transactional sociality” (Westlund 2003). This paper looks at selected cases of cultural diplomacy—through the lens of cultural history—between the USSR and India for two decades after India’s Independence, exploring the possibility of theorizing it from the perspective of an anticolonial cultural solidarity that allowed agency to Indian interlocutors

Economic Entrepreneurship, Startups and their Effects on Local development : The Case of Sweden

The current empirical entrepreneurship literature mainly shows a positive correlation between entrepreneurship (measured as the number of startups) and economic growth. However, the mechanisms by which entrepreneurship exerts its positive influence are not obvious. This paper studies the connections between startups and local development at the municipal level in Sweden 2000-2008. We use a unique database including not only total startups, but data on startups divided in six branches to study the impact of entrepreneurship on population and employment growth. Analyses are performed on all municipalities as well as by municipality type and by growth rate. In contrast to previous research, our results indicate that for several branch groups startup effects on growth may be more pronounced in low density areas than in urban agglomerations. This paper also contains one of the first empirical attempts to investigate the influence of local norms, values, networks and other spacebound assets on entrepreneurship propensity. We find that this “local Entrepreneurial Social Capital” (ESC) is highly correlated with startup frequency in Swedish municipalities

Kidney Stones Associate with Increased Risk for Myocardial Infarction

Kidney stones are a risk factor for chronic kidney disease (CKD), which, in turn, is a risk factor for myocardial infarction (MI). The objective of this study was to determine whether kidney stones associate with an increased risk for MI. We matched 4564 stone formers (1984 through 2003) on age and gender with 10,860 control subjects among residents in Olmsted County, Minnesota. We identified incident MI by diagnostic codes and validated events by chart review through 2006. We used diagnostic codes to determine incidence of kidney stones and presence of comorbidities (CKD, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, dyslipidemia, gout, alcohol dependence, and tobacco use). During a mean of 9 years of follow-up, stone formers had a 38% (95% confidence interval 7 to 77%) increased risk for MI, which remained at 31% (95% confidence interval 2% to 69%) after adjustment for CKD and other comorbidities. In conclusion, kidney stone formers are at increased risk for MI, and this risk is independent of CKD and other risk factors