The Economics of Small Firms

'Peter Johnson's wealth of experience in analysing small firms through an economics lens shines through in this book. It focuses on the key issues, cutting through the swathes of irrelevance that so often characterise entrepreneurship books, so as to produce a clear, crisp and accessible read for students and researchers alike.' - David Storey, Associate Dean Research & Director of Enterprise Group, Centre for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, Warwick Business School, The University of Warwick 'Peter Johnson's wealth of experience in analysing small firms through an economics lens shines through in this book. It focuses on the key issues, cutting through the swathes of irrelevance that so often characterise entrepreneurship books, so as to produce a clear, crisp and accessible read for students and researchers alike.' - David Storey, Associate Dean Research & Director of Enterprise Group, Centre for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, Warwick Business School, The University of Warwick 'Peter Johnson, a pioneering researcher of the economics of small firms, has taken the disparate and largely technical economics literature on entrepreneurship and transformed it into an accessible synthesis that highlights its wider relevance. This much needed book provides undergraduates, policy makers, and practitioners with a rare opportunity to gain a solid perspective of the insights of economics research on small firms from a single source.' - Professor Andrew Burke, Director of the Bettany Centre for Entrepreneurial Performance & Economics, Cranfield School of Management 'This is an excellent book. The author Professor Peter Johnson has had a distinguished teaching and research career in the area of new and small firms and he has put his expertise to good use in this book... that should be essential reading in regional economics, and firms and industry courses and for anyone interested in understanding the behaviour and performance of small firms.' - Professor Brian Ashcroft, University of Strathclyde, UK

Peter Johnson is Emeritus Professor of Business Economics in the Centre for Entrepreneurship at Durham University. He has published a wide range of studies on new and small firms. He has also taught small business economics at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

1. Introduction 2. Why Study Small Firms? 3. The Entrepreneurial Function 4. Setting Up in Business 5. Variations in Formation Activity 6. Survival and Growth 7. The Economic Role of Small Firms 8. Finance 9. Issues in Policy 10. Some Implications for Small Business Management