Entrepreneurship—and the creative ingenuity often associated with it—is critical to regional economies. Yet, America’s startup rate has been in long-term decline, and pockets of business dynamism remain limited to a small group of geographic areas. Dynamic economies demonstrate the business “churn”—where firms are both being created and destroyed—necessary to yield creative destruction. Young firms are critical in this process, which is why in recent years economists have been closely watching trends related to new business starts, high-growth businesses, and venture capital investment.
