The link between firm births and job creation: Is there a Upas Tree effect?

This paper examines the relationship between firm births and job creation in Great Britain. We use a new data set for 60 British regions, covering the whole of Great Britain, between 1980 and 1998. The relationship between new-firm startups and employment growth has previously been examined either with no time-lag or with only a short period lag. We find, for GB as a whole, no significant relationship between startups and employment creation in the 1980s, but a negative relationship for the 'low enterprise' area of the North East of England. For the 1990s we find a significant positive relationship for GB as a whole but for Scotland, which focussed policy on startups, a negative relationship. We feel this raises questions over policies designed to raise rates of new firm formation as a strategy for employment creation, particularly in 'low enterprise' areas.