Can China’s Aging Population Sustain Its Entrepreneurship? Evidence of Nonlinear Effects
Open Access
- 23 April 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by MDPI AG in Sustainability
- Vol. 12 (8), 3434
- https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083434
Abstract
This article examines the effects of China’s aging population (in terms of the old-age dependency rate (OADR)) on entrepreneurship (in terms of dimensions of innovation (IE) and self-employment (BE)) using data from 30 provinces from 2003 to 2017. Contrary to a widespread pessimistic interpretation that describes an aging population as merely a burden on entrepreneurship, this paper illustrates some positive effects of China’s aging population on entrepreneurship in terms of IE and BE. Moreover, we introduce and test the nonlinear relationship between OADR and IE/BE. Our simple panel regression model can be utilized not only to understand the inverted U-shaped effects of an aging population on entrepreneurship, by using the ordinary least squares (OLS) method and fixed-effects (FE) in our empirical studies and the system generalized method of moments (SYSGMM) in the robustness check, but also to provide managerial implications by pointing out the “optimal OADR” and the comparative regional aging situation.Keywords
This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit:
- Do Flexible Labor Markets Indeed Reduce Unemployment? A Robustness CheckReview of Social Economy, 2012
- Sustainable development and entrepreneurship: Past contributions and future directionsJournal of Business Venturing, 2010
- Entrepreneurial intentions in the third age: the impact of perceived age normsSmall Business Economics, 2009
- The Impact of Regional Age Structure on EntrepreneurshipEconomic Geography, 2009
- Innovation systems and the competitive process in developing economiesThe Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 2008
- Entrepreneurship in the Region: Breeding Ground for Nascent Entrepreneurs?Small Business Economics, 2006
- The effect of aging on entrepreneurial behaviorJournal of Business Venturing, 2005
- A Model of Strategic Entrepreneurship: The Construct and its DimensionsJournal of Management, 2003
- An Estimated Model of Entrepreneurial Choice under Liquidity ConstraintsJournal of Political Economy, 1989
- The influence of age stereotypes on managerial decisions.Journal of Applied Psychology, 1976