Firm Entry and Exit in Local Markets: ‘Market Pull’ or ‘Unemployment Push’ Effects, or Both?

Firm entry and exit flows in the retailing and consumer services may be viewed as market equilibrating processes. Local markets with considerable market room and high unemployment may be thought of having high subsequent entry rates and possibly low exit rates. We examine this relationship and obtain empirical results for a range of industries in 563 Belgian municipalities. We show that, over a three-year period, (net) entry is positively affected by the presence of local ‘market room’. We find a significant ‘unemployment push’ effect on entry in some industries, but also a significantly positive effect of unemployment on exit. This pattern possibly indicates a ‘revolving door regime’ in areas marked by unemployment where new entrants leave the market relatively soon after entry, or only crowd out local competitors without creating additional employment.