Entrepreneurship and human capital: distilling models of local economic growth to inform policy

The aim of this paper is to engage with the translation and linking of the “scientific knowledge” of theory on local economic growth with the “practical knowledge” of, on the one hand, local economic policy formulation and, on the other hand, entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education. The paper uses theoretically informed empirical modelling to identify and prioritise the drivers of local economic growth using data for Australia. The analyses demonstrate the significance of human capital and an enterprise culture in promoting local employment growth. From these results it is suggested that “bottom up” entrepreneurial education and related, but more “top down”, enterprise facilitation are practical mechanisms for achieving such local growth. These results suggest the great importance of translating “scientific knowledge” into “practical knowledge” to allow communities to engage with the knowledge economy.