Michael Fritsch is Professor of Economics and Chair of Business Dynamics, Innovation, and Economic Change at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany. His main fields of research are new business formation processes and their impact on economic development, innovation systems, economic development strategies, as well as markets and market failure.David Storey, OBE, is Professor in the School of Business Management and Economics at the University of Sussex. He is interested in the financing and performance of new firms and the public policy environment in which such firms can thrive.

• 1. Entrepreneurship in a Regional Context: Historical Roots, Recent Developments and Future Challenges Michael Fritsch and David J. Storey 2. The Long Persistence of Regional Levels of Entrepreneurship: Germany, 1925–2005 Michael Fritsch and Michael Wywrich 3. Start-ups and Local Entrepreneurial Social Capital in the Municipalities of Sweden Hans Weslund, Johan P. Larsson and Amy Rader Olsson 4. Regional Social Legitimacy of Entrepreneurship: Implications for Entrepreneurial Intention and Start-up Behaviour Ewald Kibler, Teemu Kautonen and Matthias Fink 5. Entrepreneurship as an Urban Event? Empirical Evidence from European Cities Niels Bosma and Rolf Sternberg 6. Population Change and New Firm Formation in Urban and Rural Regions Heike Delfmann, Sierdjan Koster, Philip McCann and Jouke van Dijk 7. The Significance of Entry and Exit for Regional Productivity Growth Udo Brixy 8. Spatial Determinants of Entrepreneurship in India Ejaz Ghani, William R. Kerr and Stephen O’Connell 9. Is Entrepreneurship a Route Out of Deprivation? Julian S. Frankish, Richard G. Roberts, Alex Coad and David J. Storey 10. Regional Effect Heterogeneity of Start-up Subsidies for the Unemployed Marco Caliendo and Steffen Künn