Module Content

The Economics of Entrepreneurship is an optional advanced (level 6) 15-credit module designed for final-year students of the Economics and Business degree. It is set to run in Term 2. The module offers rather an economics perspective on the entrepreneurship, analysing how economic incentives affect entrepreneurial behaviour, and how the entrepreneurial behaviour, in turn, affects economic development. It is a research-based module with students expected to use quantitative skills acquired throughout their degree to work on their group coursework projects, using real-world data.

Indicative Topics

The module begins with an introduction to the concept of entrepreneurship. The issue of entrepreneurship is addressed as it has historically developed, primarily within the field of economics. Different schools of economic thought have defined the ‘entrepreneurial role’ in various ways. The course explores these different perspectives and combines a number of them to develop a definition for entrepreneurship, how it fits within the economic theory, and how the concept of entrepreneurship is operationalized in empirical research.

An important emphasis in the course is placed on innovation as central to understanding entrepreneurial process. Although the nature of innovation is difficult to define, different types of innovation can be distinguished. We broadly distinguish between the concepts of ‘replicative’ and ‘innovative’ entrepreneurship, and their respective roles in the economic development process of advanced and emerging economies. The course continues with offering insights into the determinants of entrepreneurial activity, and carries on with the discussion of other important issues pertaining to the field of entrepreneurship, including immigration, and whether discrimination that immigrants face at labour markets of the host economies, is what pushes them into entrepreneurship. The other topics covered in the course are the financing of entrepreneurial ventures, and whether financing constraints are binding; the regional perspective on entrepreneurial dynamics; the concepts of strategic and social entrepreneurship, and public policy towards entrepreneurship.

Teaching Delivery

The course is taught by a two-hour interactive lecture weekly. Total workload includes attendance at lectures, coursework preparation, readings group- and individual-based assignments, and oral class presentations and discussions to facilitate students’ learning as it progresses.

By the end of the module, you should be able to:

Understand the theoretical concepts pertaining to the concept of entrepreneurship, its measures and determinants.

Become aware of the key problems and issues surrounding entrepreneurial developments in advanced and emerging economies, and be able to examine them critically and relate to the underlying theoretical concepts of entrepreneurship at different level of analysis – national, regional, and individual.

Acquire analytical ability to explore the interaction of entrepreneurship with the economy, and to study other critical relationships, involving entrepreneurship, empirically with the perspective of drawing implications for policy-makers.