Innovative Start-Ups and the Distribution of Human Capital (eBook)

Dr. Ronney Aamoucke is an economist specialized in questions of entrepreneurship, innovation, industrial organization, market-regulation, and regional aspects of quality of life and human capital. He finished his doctoral study at the University of Jena within the framework of the DFG sponsored graduate program "The Economics of Innovative Change". He lectured several courses in economics at the University of Jena including "European Competition Policy," "Market, Competition and Regulation," "Business Dynamics and Entrepreneurship," and "Regional Development."

Acknowledgments 6
Contents 8
List of Figures 12
List of Tables 14
List of Abbreviations and Acronyms 18
Chapter 1: Introduction 19
1.1 Entrepreneurship 20
1.1.1 The Rise of Entrepreneurship Theory 20
1.1.2 The Impact of New Business Formation 21
1.2 Human Capital 24
1.2.1 The Rise of Human Capital Theory 24
1.2.2 The Impact of Human Capital 26
1.2.3 Human Capital and New Business Formation 28
1.3 Aim and Structure 31
References 34
Chapter 2: Regional Public Research, Higher Education, and Innovative Start-Ups 42
2.1 Introduction 42
2.2 Knowledge, Innovative Start-Ups, and Geography 43
2.2.1 Theory: Innovative Start-Ups as Knowledge Spillovers 43
2.2.2 Previous Work on the Geographic Distribution of Innovative Start-Ups 45
2.3 Data and Descriptive Statistics 48
2.3.1 Data 48
2.3.2 The Spatial Distribution of Innovative Start-Ups in Germany 49
2.4 Empirical Approach 51
2.4.1 Estimation Strategy 51
2.4.2 Independent Variables and Expected Results 53
2.5 Results 56
2.5.1 Results for the Baseline Model and Indicators for Regional Public Research 56
2.5.2 Aggregation of Indicators for Regional Public Research 58
2.5.3 Extensions and Robustness Checks 63
2.6 Summary and Conclusions 64
References 65
Chapter 3: Fields of Knowledge, Types of Higher Education Institutions, and Innovative Start-Ups 67
3.1 Introduction 67
3.2 Theoretical Framework 68
3.2.1 Knowledge Spillovers and Innovative Start-Ups 68
3.2.2 Characteristics of Different Scientific Fields 68
3.3 Previous Research and Open Questions 70
3.4 Research Design and Hypotheses 72
3.4.1 Classification of HEIs and Fields of Scientific Knowledge 72
3.4.2 Expectations 73
3.5 Data, Variables, and Descriptive Statistics 75
3.5.1 Data 75
3.5.2 Variables 76
3.6 Empirical Approach 77
3.7 Results 79
3.7.1 Results for the Baseline Model 79
3.7.2 How Does the Impact of HEIs Differ Across Various Scientific Fields and Types of HEI? 79
3.7.3 How Does the Impact of HEIs Differ Across Transmission Channel? 81
3.7.4 Aggregation of Indicators for Regional Public Research 85
3.7.5 The Impact of Non-university Research Institutes 86
3.7.6 Extensions and Robustness Checks 90
3.8 Summary and Conclusions 91
References 92
Chapter 4: Quality of Life and the Geography of Human Capital 95
4.1 Introduction 95
4.2 Quality of Life 97
4.2.1 Quality of Life and Human Needs 97
4.2.2 Quality of Life in Regional Economics 98
4.2.3 Dimensions of Quality of Life in the Literature 99
4.2.4 Empirical Implementation 103
4.3 Elements of Quality of Life 104
4.3.1 Material Well-Being 104
4.3.2 Protection 107
4.3.3 Education and Arts 107
4.3.4 Sociopolitical Dimension 108
4.3.5 Amenities 108
4.3.6 Tolerance 110
4.3.7 Population Density 111
4.4 Empirical Approach 112
4.4.1 Data Sources and Descriptive Statistics 112
4.4.2 Empirical Difficulties 113
4.4.3 Path Model and Structural Equations 115
4.5 Results 117
4.5.1 Basic Results 117
4.5.2 Checks 123
4.6 Summary and Conclusion 124
References 125
Chapter 5: Conclusions 134
5.1 Higher Education and the Geography of Innovative Start-Ups 134
5.2 Quality and Geography of Human Capital 136
5.3 Limitations and Implications for Further Research 138
References 139
Appendix A 142
Appendix B: German Summary-Deutschsprachige Zusammenfassung 174