Determining the causal relationships among entrepreneurship, educational attainment and per capita GDP in high-income OECD countries

Abstract

The entrepreneurship has been evaluated as playing a central role in explaining economic growth by many economists and policy makers. This role has recently been the subject of a growing literature. However, entrepreneurship literature generally has been focused on evaluating the effect of entrepreneurship on economic growth. This study will evaluate the causal relationships among women’s and men’s entrepreneurship, women’s and men’s educational attainment and per capita GDP in 20 high-income OECD countries over the period 2001-2011. To do this, applying the Granger panel non-causality test, the empirical findings of the study showed that there exists a unidirectional causal relationship running from women’s entrepreneurship to women’s educational attainment. Thus, the findings showed that the women entrepreneurship is a reason for increased women’s educational attainment. In addition, the findings showed that per capita GDP is important source for the total entrepreneurship activities as well as women’s and men’s educational attainment.