Public Capital and Small Firm Performance‪.‬

Introduction Regions and states exhibit important differences when it comes to the apparent health of their business environments for entrepreneurial activity. There are clear differences among the states with respect to small business starts and failures, and distinctions among regions and states may extend to financial performance. Table 1 displays one set of statistics for 1998, concerning the viability of new and small business activity across the states. Rates of business startups range from .36 to .84 starts per 1,000 residents. Ratios of business starts to failures exhibit similar variability, ranging from 1.02 to 7.16. Naturally, such statistics lead to questions about what makes one region or state more entrepreneurial than another for new business development and success.