engleski

The determinants of employment of small and medium-sized enterprises in the European Union: A panel data analysis

The main goal of this paper is to contribute to the on-going debate on the small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) as the backbone of the European economy, with special emphasis on identifying the determinants of SMEs manufacturing employment. Despite the fact that a European SMEs suffered serious setbacks at the end of the previous decade, in 2014, SMEs in the non-financial business sector generated more than EUR 3.7 trillion of value added, and employed almost 90 million people. Thus, estimating the dynamic panel data models, paper examines the impact of macroeconomic indicators, seeking in particular to gain a deeper understanding of the features that have increased SMEs employment in European Union members during the 2008-2014. Specifically, the authors utilize the system GMM estimator with robust standard errors. Econometric analysis indicates that better access to finance, active labour market policies, and higher GDP growth are statistically significant conditions for achieving an increase in SMEs employment.

employment; manufacturing; panel data model; small and medium-sized enterprises

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