ABSTRACT
As pointed out in Chapter 1, the distribution of start-up activities is uneven across regions (see for example Figure 3.2). Various studies have already analysed the influence of regional factors on start-up activities (e.g. Audretsch and Fritsch 1994, Reynolds 1994, Garofoli 1994, Keeble and Walker 1994, Steil 1997, Nerlinger 1998). In addition, nation-wide or industry-specific variables have an impact on the variation of start-up rates between countries or industries respectively (see for example Reynolds et al. 1994, Sternberg 2000 or Felder et al. 1997). Most of these studies only consider the impact of the current values of these regional variables on the current start-up rate. This means that they essentially ignore changes of the regional, national and industry variables over time.
