Baltzopoulos A. and Brostrom A. Attractors of entrepreneurial activity: universities, regions and alumni entrepreneurs, Regional Studies. This paper investigates how universities may affect regional entrepreneurship through the localization decisions of entrepreneurial alumni. Empirically, a comprehensive, individual-level data set from Sweden for the period 2003-2005 is employed. The results suggest that even when controlling for their spatial history, individuals have an increased propensity to set up in the region where they studied. This effect is found to substitute for both urbanization economies and localization economies as drivers of regional-level entrepreneurship. Thus, the present analysis provides evidence on how universities affect regional economic development that complements the strong focus on spin-off activities by university researchers in previous studies.
QC 20130709