Atherton (2006) has noted that the current policy preoccupation with increasing
start-up levels has been justified in terms of the ‘creative
destruction’ it is expected to bring about. However, this article shows
that the most commonly employed measures of start-up, and the most common
dataset on which they are employed, are inadequate for assessing start-up policy
justified in these terms. A new dataset and method is introduced that is better
able to uncover creative destruction taking place in the business stock.
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