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About the programme | Meetings | Publications | Statistics | Other links
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In September 2006, the OECD launched a new Entrepreneurship Indicators Programme (EIP) to build internationally comparable statistics on entrepreneurship and its determinants. The aim of the EIP is to create a durable, long-term programme of policy-relevant entrepreneurship statistics. As such, the work involves developing standard definitions and concepts and engaging countries and international Agencies in the collection of data. Importantly, Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Commission, has now become a partner in this activity and the EIP has become a joint OECD-Eurostat Programme.
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About the OECD Entrepreneurship Indicators Programme
For many years, economists and policymakers have identified "entrepreneurs" as important drivers for employment, innovation and economic growth. While it is generally accepted that entrepreneurship is "good", neither the drivers of entrepreneurship nor the links between entrepreneurship and its potential impacts, on economic growth for example, are well understood. This knowledge gap largely reflects the lack of internationally accepted, coherent and comparable definitions for, and indicators on, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial activity. The increasing interest, in both developed and developing countries, in how government policies and other national "business environment" factors influence the rates and types of entrepreneurship development has focussed even greater attention on this information-gap. In an increasingly globalised world, policy makers and analysts alike need to evaluate entrepreneurship policies across countries. The OECD and its partners are addressing this information gap through a coordinated effort to agree on a policy-relevant, analytical model, build a measurement infrastructure and gather comparable data.
A number of developments conspired to provide impetus in for the EIP. An OECD Ministerial Meeting in Istanbul in 2004 called for countries to develop more robust statistics on SMEs and entrepreneurship to improve policy development and monitoring. The Centre for Entrepreneurship was established within the OECD and that entrepreneurship-policy body also expressed users' needs for international entrepreneurship data. Denmark organised an International Consortium for Dynamic Entrepreneurship Benchmarking (ICE) that urged the OECD to play a role in developing better entrepreneurship data and provided support. Finally, the Kauffman Foundation of the United States also provided a generous financial contribution to permit the OECD to explore the field of entrepreneurship measurement.
In 2005 the OECD Statistics Directorate (STD) undertook two initiatives. First, the existing Business Statistics Unit was asked to develop more-comparable information on business demography, a key element in understanding entrepreneurship. This work was financed by the ICE Consortium and the OECD itself. Second, STD launched a feasibility study to determine whether, and how, an international programme of entrepreneurship statistics could be developed. This study, known as the Entrepreneurship Indicators Project was financed by the Kauffman Foundation. It resulted in an Action Plan on how the OECD, in concert with others, could best undertake the development of relevant, comparable indicators.
The principal output of the Feasibility Study was a Scoping or Strategy Report, "Understanding Entrepreneurship: Developing Indicators for International Comparisons and Assessments" that identified the needs of OECD countries for a general measurement framework on entrepreneurship to assist evidence-based policy making. In conducting its research the Project brought together the views of international experts in the field of entrepreneurship. The resulting Report and Action Plan recommended a "step by step" approach to Entrepreneurship Indicators development. The first step was the establishment of a Steering Group, to coordinate inputs and ensure that the proposed indicators reflected policy interests of Member Countries.. The ultimate goals proposed were the creation of a Measurement Manual, to guarantee coherent statistical practices, and a Compendium or Scoreboard on Entrepreneurship. Other key outputs during this Feasibility Study Phase were Reports on the comparability of business birth (entry) rates across OECD countries and on a framework that could lead to improvements in the comparability of these indicators.
The Action Plan was endorsed by various OECD bodies, notably the Working Party on SMEs and Entrepreneurship and the Committee on Statistics. Further funding was secured from the Kauffman Foundation and the ICE Consortium and the OECD Entrepreneurship Indicators Programme (EIP) was launched in September 2006. Subsequently, the OECD Business Statistics activity and the Entrepreneurship Indicators Programme were combined into a single organisational unit. This move ensured that statistical concepts and methods would be developed with a view to making data most relevant for entrepreneurship policy making.
The first step in moving forward was the creation of the OECD Entrepreneurship Indicators Steering Group (EISG). The EISG has met twice, (December 2006, Rome, and June 2007, Istanbul), with a third meeting scheduled for November 2007, in Paris. The November meeting will be coupled with a special Workshop on the Measurement of High-Growth Enterprises.
Since 2006, work has progressed on several fronts. First, Eurostat and OECD have agreed to a common set of Business Demography concepts and definitions. The collection of data according to these new concepts is already under way and a Joint Manual will be published in the fall of 2007. The OECD has published related data on "Structural and Demographic Business Statistics", showing detailed information on employment and monetary variable broken down by size and industry class of businesses across OECD countries.
Under the direction of the EISG, Papers on " Defining Entrepreneurial Activity: Definitions Supporting Frameworks for Data Collection" and " A Framework for Addressing and Measuring Entrepreneurship" have been published in January 2008. Work has begun on a broader OECD-Eurostat Entrepreneurship Measurement Manual that will provide definitions for entrepreneurship as well as key indicators that measure the determinants, performance and impact of various facets of entrepreneurship. Download (pdf) a summary chart of these indicators.
Meetings
Publications
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Defining Entrepreneurial Activity: Definitions Supporting Frameworks for Data Collection, Nadim Ahmad and Richard G. Seymour, 2008
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A Framework for Addressing and Measuring Entrepreneurship, Nadim Ahmad and Anders Hoffman, 2008
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Perspective, OECD High-Growth Enterprises and Gazelles, Nadim Ahmad and Eric Gonnard, 2007
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Eurostat - OECD Manual on Business Demography Statistics, 2007 |
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Understanding Entrepreneurship: Developing Indicators for International Comparisons and Assessments, Tim Davis, 2006
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The International Comparability of Business Start-Up rates, Steve Vale, 2006
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Structural and Demographic Business Statistics 2006 |
Statistics
Business Demography Statistics - Birth, Death and Survival Rates
Business Statistics by Size Class
Venture Capital (forthcoming)
Other Links
Bookmark this page: www.oecd.org/statistics/entrepreneurshipindicators
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