María Teresa Méndez Picazo

Entrepreneurship, income distribution and economic growth

Traditionally different factors and variables have been considered in the economic growth models. Following Solow’s model, economists considered physical capital and technology during 1950s–1980s. With the introduction of endogenous growth models, new forms of capital were introduced in the production function; human capital, public capital and more recently social capital. However, the consideration of qualitative variables is necessary to improve the economic growth analysis. The improvement of statistical information has favored their introduction in the economic growth models. Recently, “entrepreneurship” concept has been considered in this type of analysis. Entrepreneurship considers the capacity and ability to create new business and production activity. It is an activity not an occupation. Some authors like Schumpeter have included it in their models and they have analysed its effects on economic growth. But it is also necessary to include the role of social climate, that in a schumpterian way it could be represented by income distribution. The main objective of the paper is to analyze the relationship between entrepreneurship, income distribution and economic growth following the ideas developed by Schumpeter and we will contrast them from a empirical analysis using the GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) data.