Great Recession didn’t create new entrepreneurs

Posted by Al Lewis on March 24, 2011
Economy

Did the Great Recession spark a wave of entrepreneurship, as some economists predicted?

Scott Shane, a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, says no.

“The Great Recession had a negative impact on US entrepreneurship,” writes Shane. “At the end of the recession, the US had fewer businesses and self-employed people than it had before the downturn began.”

From December 2007 through June of 2009, self-employment fell, many small businesses that employ others disappeared, and fewer employer businesses were born. Click here to read more from Shane.