While it is generally acknowledged that entrepreneurship as well as export activity may both be important strategies for achieving national economic growth, it has remained unclear how export activity among new ventures is related to economic growth. This paper investigates whether the presence of export-oriented entrepreneurs is a more important determinant of economic growth than entrepreneurial activity in general. We focus on the national or macro-level and use data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor for a sample of 36 countries. An important advantage of using the macrolevel is that indirect effects of exporting entrepreneurs that reach further than the performance of these firms themselves (e.g. spillovers) are captured in the analysis. To our knowledge, no attempt has been made thus far to link international activity of early-stage ventures to macro-economic outcomes. Our results suggest that export-oriented entrepreneurship is indeed more important for
achieving high economic growth rates than entrepreneurial activity in general. This suggests that international activity by small and new firms strongly contributes to higher levels of competition and, consequently, to the emergence of highly dynamic economies and higher levels of economic growth.