Spatial variations in the determinants and effects of firm births and deaths

This paper models the interdependence between firm births, firm deaths and economic variables, using county level data for the UK. It examines the determinants of births and deaths, as well as outlining a modelling process which incorporates two other features that have not been considered to any great extent elsewhere: first, a systematic approach to birth / death interdependence; and second, treatment of the economic variables as endogenous, i.e. subject to influence by births and deaths. Since the data relate to the UK counties, the paper is clearly relevant to the analysis of regional development and to the role of flows into and out of the business sector in that development.