The coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic has ushered in a boom in business applications in the United States after years of stagnation. But is this startup explosion real? Apparently it is. Although some data sources on entrepreneurship lag, so far the evidence shows that the surge in entrepreneurship is real and could lead to job creation and increased productivity in the U.S. in the long run. Seems expensive.
The coronavirus pandemic has sparked an unexpected entrepreneurial boom, with Americans choosing to start businesses in record time. Equally unexpected was the durability of the boom. Would-be entrepreneurs have proven undaunted by recession fears, labor and supply chain constraints, the highest inflation rates in a generation, and rapidly rising interest rates. In October 2023, more than three and a half years after the pandemic began, Americans were still filing 59% more applications to start new businesses than before the pandemic. This resurgence is all the more remarkable given that business start-up rates and other indicators of economic dynamism have been at or near record lows throughout the 2010s.
