This chapter examines the impact of ambitious entrepreneurship (entrepreneurs expecting to grow their firm) and established high-growth firms (firms that have actually realized high growth rates) on macroeconomic growth using a large sample of GEM data in high and low-income countries for the period 2002-2005. The empirical evidence shows that ambitious entrepreneurship accounts for the whole effect of entrepreneurship on macroeconomic growth but that this is not the case when low-income countries are considered. Also, in contrast to ambitious entrepreneurs, the chapter finds the contribution of established high-growth firms to macroeconomic growth to be negligible. No connection between their prevalence rates and the share of ambitious entrepreneurs is found.

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doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199580866.003.0011, hdl.handle.net/1765/84756
Erasmus University Rotterdam

Stam, E., Hartog, C., van Stel, A., & Thurik, R. (2011). Ambitious Entrepreneurship, High-Growth Firms, and Macroeconomic Growth. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199580866.003.0011