The impact of internet on entrepreneurship

Innovation and entrepreneurship are important driving forces for economic growth, and the Internet plays an essential role in entrepreneurship activities. This paper studies the impact of the Internet on entrepreneurship and its mechanism by using China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) dataset in 2014 and 2016. Our empirical findings indicate that the Internet has a significant and positive influence on entrepreneurship, and the results remain robust even after addressing endogeneity. Moreover, heterogeneous examinations suggest that the Internet is more beneficial for opportunistic entrepreneurship and in rural areas. Further mechanism analysis shows that the Internet promotes entrepreneurship mainly through facilitating entrepreneurs to access infor-mation and helping entrepreneurs obtain informal financing.