Rättsstatens betydelse för entreprenörskap: En Panelstudie av låg- och lägre medelinkomstländer

Weak institutions and crime represent central obstacles to economic growth in many low- and lower-middle-income countries. At the same time, entrepreneurship plays a crucial role in economic growth, welfare and employment, while being particularly sensitive to a lack of legal certainty. The aim of this study is to analyze how crime and institutional quality affect entrepreneurship in low- and lower-middle-income countries, with a particular focus on the connection between crime, the Rule of Law and entrepreneurship. The study is conducted using a quantitative panel data regression based on 64 low- and lower-middle-income countries over the period 2006–2022. Entrepreneurship is measured by New Business Density, while crime and institutional quality are measured by intentional homicides, the prison population, and the Rule of Law indicator. The regression is estimated using a fixed-effects model and robust standard errors. The results show a clear, statistically significant positive relationship between New Business Density and Rule of Law, indicating that improvements in the quality of the Rule of Law are associated with increased entrepreneurial activity. On the contrary, no statistically significant relationship between homicides and entrepreneurship was found, while the prison population measure exhibits a weak negative relation. Overall, the results indicate that institutional quality constitutes a more robust explanatory variable for entrepreneurship that direct measures of crime from a global panel perspective.