Spatial changes in entrepreneurship in relation to economic crisis and recovery. Insights from Romanian counties

Trying to explain the sources of persisting high inequalities in the regional distribution of entrepreneurship in Romania, this paper puts a spotlight on the spatial interactions among neighbour regions in a spatial modelling framework. We explored the interplay of factors that inform the territorial distribution of SMEs by employing various spatial panel data models that not only provided better estimations of the parameters, but also removed the cross – sectional dependence detected in our previous research using classic panel models. We found that the existing regional inequalities in entrepreneurial activity are strongly associated with differences in economic development, gross investments, research and development, age of the population, and and differences in regional resilience to economic crises. Additional useful information was brought about by the computation of direct and indirect effects of these factors of influence.