Entrepreneurship, start-up costs and employment

We study the effects of business start-up costs on employment, in a model with managers, workers and matching. We show that higher start-up costs discourage entrepreneurs and increase the fraction of the population who become workers. Job creation suffers and employment settles at a lower level. We illustrate with evidence from major OECD economies, where large variations in start-up costs are correlated with large variations in employment levels. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.