Entrepreneurship and Income Inequality: A Dynamic Spatial Panel Data Analysis

Abstract

This paper extends the empirical debate of Ragoubi and El Harbi (2018) on the dynamic relationship between entrepreneurship and income inequality. Using a dynamic spatial panel data analysis for both 33 high-income countries and 39 middle-income and low-income countries over the period 2004–2014, the main empirical findings are summarised as follows. First, the results indicate that entrepreneurship is a spatial and persistent phenomenon. Second, there is strong support for the existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between entrepreneurship and income inequality espoused by the Kuznets Curve hypothesis for middle-income and low-income countries. Third, the interaction between income inequality and income per capita has a significant negative effect on the entrepreneurial activity for middle-income and low-income countries. Fourth, a significant positive association is found between the interaction variable and entrepreneurship for high-income countries. Fifth, the findings show evidence of significant positive and negative short-run direct effects of income inequality on the entrepreneurial activity for middle-income and low-income countries. Finally, there are significant negative short-run spillover effects of income inequality on the entrepreneurial activity for middle-income and low-income countries.