Do Disease Epidemics Stimulate or Repress Entrepreneurial Activity?

Aziz N. Berdiev and James Saunoris
Additional contact information
Aziz N. Berdiev: Bryant University

Eastern Economic Journal, 2021, vol. 47, issue 4, No 2, 464-486

Abstract: Abstract This study addresses a unique angle by examining an under looked determinant of entrepreneurship related to disease epidemics. In times of natural disasters, such as disease epidemics, new demands emerge that might promote entrepreneurship. Using data on a large cross section of countries, we empirically test whether and to what extent the incidence and severity of disease epidemics affect the prevalence of entrepreneurship. The results show that both the occurrence and severity of epidemics spur entrepreneurial activity. These results highlight a potentially important role served by entrepreneurs in responding to biological disasters. Our findings withstand a series of robustness checks.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Epidemics; COVID-19; Economic freedom (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 I18 L26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41302-021-00203-w Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:easeco:v:47:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1057_s41302-021-00203-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/41302

DOI: 10.1057/s41302-021-00203-w

Access Statistics for this article

Eastern Economic Journal is currently edited by Allan Zebedee and Cynthia Bansak

More articles in Eastern Economic Journal from Palgrave Macmillan, Eastern Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().