The risk of growing fast

Are firm growth and firm survival related to each other? This paper tests the hypothesis that the relationship between firm growth and firm survival can be characterised by an inverted U-shaped relation. This hypothesis is confirmed by our estimations. At the same time, the results indicate that the top of the inverted U-shaped relation occurs at very high growth rates. This suggests that for the large majority of enterprises, the relationship between firm growth and firm survival can be better described by a positive relationship rather than an inverted U-shaped relationship. Although these results are preliminary, they suggest that policies that aim to increase the number of fast-growing firms have no negative effects on the rate of firm deaths.

Working Paper 01-02 - Production and diffusion of ICT in

Information and communication technology (ICT) has become a significant economic activity in most industrialized countries as well as an important engine of innovation and changes in the rest of the economy. It has been recognized as one of the key factors boosting productivity growth and hence business sector competitiveness. Various initiatives have been recently adopted at regional, national and European levels in order to meet quickly the new challenges of ICT use and diffusion in Europe. A growing number of indicators are now available in order to assess the position of each country or region in terms of ICT development and to guide policy decisions in that field. The aim of this report is to provide a clear and succinct view of the relative development of ICT in Belgium by analyzing both the production and the diffusion of ICT in our economy 1 and to highlight the main weaknesses and strengths of the Belgian economy in that area. Even if the sector has been recently characterised by stock markets ups and downs and numerous bankruptcies, production of ICT goods and services has contributed significantly during the nineties to the growth of economic activity and employment in some industrialised countries as for instance in Anglo-saxon and Scandinavian countries. Has Belgian economic activity benefited from the boom in the ICT sector to the same extent as other industrialised countries? What kind of development can be expected in the future? These are the main questions addressed in the part of the report devoted to the analysis of the Belgian ICT production sector.

“If There Are Men Who Are Afraid to Die, There Are Women Who Are Not”: African American Women\u27s Civil Rights Leadership in Boston, 1920-1975.

Since the 1980s, narratives surrounding the Boston Busing Crisis focus on South Boston white working-class’s reaction to Judge Arthur W. Garrity\u27s forced desegregation order of 1974. Yet, by analyzing the crises from such narrow perspective, the narratives leave out half of the story. This dissertation challenges these narratives by situating the busing crisis as the culmination of more than half a century of grassroots activism led by Black working-class mothers. By taking action at the neighborhood and the city levels, these mothers succeeded where the National Association for the Advancement of the Colored People and the Urban League had failed. This study is the first one to analyze the role of these “ordinary mothers,” who, through their actions and influence, transformed the civil rights leadership in Boston between the 1920s and the mid-1970s

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2009 The Netherlands

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) is a research program executed annually with the aim to obtain internationally comparative high quality research data on entrepreneurial activity at the national level. This academic research consortium started as a partnership between the London Business School and Babson College in 1999 and started with 10 participating countries in this same year. Over the years GEM has expanded to comprise 54 countries in 2009. Currently, GEM is the single largest study of entrepreneurial activity in the world. The GEM research program provides a harmonized assessment of the level of national entrepreneurial activity and conditions to which it is subject for all participating countries. The Netherlands has participated in GEM since 2001.