History Repeating! Spatial Dynamics in Dutch Start-up Rates (1996-2013)

The number of start-ups has skyrocketed in the Netherlands in the past ten years. Has this growth been accompanied by a shift in the spatial patterns of start-ups? This Windows on the Netherlands puts this question to the test and maps the dynamics in the spatial patterns of start-ups for the period 1996-2013. This is done at the disaggregated spatial level of the municipality. Even though we observe a slight shift of entrepreneurship to the east of the country, the overall spatial patterns in start-up intensity are highly stable: start-up rates are highest in the most urbanised municipalities. As the small spatial scale of analysis potentially allows for much variability, the found stability in the spatial patterns lends additional empirical support to the idea that patterns in start-up rates are highly persistent.