Conference in Loccum provides new insights into start-ups in rural areas

Start-ups can renew the economic structure, promote innovation, increase the dynamism of the economy, create jobs and offer new approaches to tackling social problems.
But what is the situation regarding start-ups in rural areas? This was the central question addressed at the conference held from February 6 to 7 at the Protestant Academy Loccum in cooperation with the Ministry for Federal and European Affairs and Regional Development and the Thünen Institute of Rural Economics (WI).

An important finding of the conference was that fewer start-ups are founded in rural areas than in urban areas, even in relation to the size of the population, and that this is primarily due to the fact that fewer people with characteristics conducive to start-ups live in rural areas. For this reason, measures that stabilize or expand the regional pool of potential founders could be promising, for example through investments in education or return initiatives for skilled workers. Because existing companies play a more important role in economic development than start-ups in many rural regions, a good location policy for rural regions is at least as important as a start-up policy tailored to this.

Contact: Prof. Dr. Christian Hundt