Entrepreneurship and Market Size: The Case of Young College Graduates in Italy

Abstract:     
We analyze empirically the effects of urban agglomeration on Italian college graduatesﾒ work possibilities as entrepreneurs three years after graduation. We find that each 100,000 inhabitant-increase in the size of the individualﾒs province of work reduces the chances of being an entrepreneur by 0.2-0.3 percent. This result holds after controlling for regional fixed effects and is robust to instrumenting urbanization. Provinceﾒs competition, urban amenities and dis-amenities, cost of labor, earning differentials between employees and self-employed workers, unemployment rates and value added per capita account for 40 percent of the negative urbanization penalty. Our result cannot be explained by the presence of negative large-city differentials in returns to education either. In fact, as long as they succeed in entering the largest markets, young entrepreneurs are able to reap-off the benefits of urbanization externalities: every 100,000-inhabitant increase in the province's population raises entrepreneurs' net monthly income by 0.2-0.3 percent.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 21

Keywords: labor market transitions, urbanization

JEL Classification: R12, J24, J21

working papers series