Despite the volume of research on new firm formation using aggregate VAT registration data, there is very little evidence on the contribution of start-ups to the Northern Ireland economy. We know how many start up each year and how many survive for 3 years but we have no information on how fast they grow and the degree to which they engage in exporting, undertake R&D or innovative activity. Policy has relied on a very crude and unhelpful measure, the rate of VAT registrations, to assess the extent to which an area is 'entrepreneurial'. This project is designed to provide a more rigorous assessment of the extent to which cohorts of firms newly registered for VAT engage in 'entrepreneurial' activities. The first stage will link the enterprise-level records of all new VAT registrations in Northern Ireland for 2003, 2004 and 2005 collected by DETI into other firm-level datasets, including Invest NI client datasets. This will provide a picture of these businesses, their growth and other dimensions of their performance. The project will include a study of the feasibility of instituting an annual survey to monitor the activities of each year's new crop of VAT registrations.

Researchers
Mark Hart