1. David Halabisky, Economist LEED Division, OECD
Entrepreneurial Activities in Europe: Youth Entrepreneurship Partnership between Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Division of the OECD and the European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
David Halabisky, Economist
LEED Division, OECD

2. Introduction Annual unemployment rates in EU, 2001 to 2010
Source: Eurostat, “Labour Force Survey”

3. Self employment rates Self-employment rates by country and age, 2010
*US data are for 2009
Source: Data for European Union Member States and European Average from Eurostat, “Labour Force Survey” (Data for age group not available for Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg and Malta); Data for the United States from the Bureau of Labour Statistics, “Labour Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey”; and Data for Canada from Statistics Canada, “Labour Force Survey”.

4. Entrepreneurship rates
Proportion of youth and adults by stage of entrepreneurial activity and business ownership, EU and US
Note: Error bars show standard error.
Source: Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2007–11, Adult Population Survey

5. Barriers to youth entrepreneurship
Lack of awareness of potential for entrepreneurship among role models results in a lack of encouragement or even negative social attitudes
Education and training programmes generally do not do enough to nurture entrepreneurial attitudes and skills
Lack of prior work and entrepreneurship experience is a major determinant to business start-up and entrepreneurship performance
Fewer financial resources and difficulty obtaining external finance, including debt finance, hampers business start-up
Limited business networks and business-related social capital have consequences for business start-up and obtaining legitimacy
Market barriers, including a bias in financial markets away from supporting youth-owned businesses and ‘discrimination’ in product markets

6. Policy responses Develop entrepreneurship skills
Goal: overcome the of lack of entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and attitudes and the lack of prior work and entrepreneurship experience
Approach: develop entrepreneurship skills within education system and through training outside of the education system
Example: Think Big, United Kingdom
Provide information, advice, coaching and mentoring
Goal: provide ‘soft’ support such as information, advice, coaching and mentoring to overcome knowledge gaps
Approach: disseminate information, provide advice, counselling, coaching and mentoring services
Example: Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust, Scotland; Project GATE (Growing America Through Entrepreneurship), United States

7. Policy responses, continued
Provide financial support
Goal: provide financial support to overcome lack of initial capital and difficulty in obtaining finance
Approach: provide finances for living expenses and working capital, as well as micro-financing and non-traditional start-up financing programmes
Example: DEFi jeunes, France
Develop infrastructure for entrepreneurship
Goal: secure a supportive infrastructure to overcome barriers associated with lack of networks, skills, finance for premises and access to associated start-up support
Approach: support youth business networks and associations, and business incubators
Example: Garage Hamburg , Germany

8. Conclusions and recommendations
Youth entrepreneurship is unlikely to be a panacea for solving the youth unemployment problem but it can be a part of the response
There is some evidence of success in helping young people move into self-employment from unemployment, although the evidence base is relatively small and generally lacks rigour
Evaluation evidence should be bolstered so that policymakers can focus on approaches that work
To maximise effectiveness and efficiency, policy should:
Target resources on young people with the best chance of success,
Provide sufficient support to allow them to start businesses outside of low entry barrier but high competition sectors, and
Provide integrated packages of complementary support rather than one-shot instruments

9. Capacity Building Seminar
Trento, Italy
27-29 June 2012

10. Capacity Building Seminar
Theme is financing business start-ups for under-represented groups
Three themes:
Effective policy tools to facilitate access to finance for start-ups
Complementing financial support with other support to develop entrepreneurial skills
Understanding good governance
Programme will include keynote speakers and group work
Participating will bring you into a network of senior policy makers and provides access to experts and events