Is Entrepreneurship Missing in Shanghai?

45 Pages Posted: 1 Jul 2008

See all articles by Yasheng Huang

Yasheng Huang

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management

Yi Qian

Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management

Date Written: June, 30 2008

Abstract

Using a unique census dataset on all industrial firms (with more than 5 million yuan in sales), we document a phenomenon of missing entrepreneurship in Shanghai. Entrepreneurship is defined as private, new entrants in our paper. Specifically, in terms of business density, the size of employment and a host of other measures, the relative ranking of Shanghai was always near the bottom in the country. All these empirical findings took place against a backdrop of the presumably huge locational advantages of Shanghai - the substantial human capital, rapid GDP growth, and a long and stellar - but pre-communist - history of entrepreneurship. We propose a hypothesis that Shanghai adopted a particularly rigorous version of industrial policy model of economic development and this industrial policy proclivity may have led to the atrophy of entrepreneurship in Shanghai.

Keywords: Shanghai, Entrepreneurship

JEL Classification: F00, L26, R11

Suggested Citation

Huang, Yasheng and Qian, Yi, Is Entrepreneurship Missing in Shanghai? (June, 30 2008). MIT Sloan Research Paper No. 4707-08, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1153577 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1153577

Yasheng Huang (Contact Author)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management ( email )

100 Main Street
E62-416
Cambridge, MA 02142
United States

Yi Qian

Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management ( email )

2001 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL 60208
United States

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