We examine the impact of ambitious entrepreneurship (entrepreneurs expecting to grow their
firm) and high-growth firms (firms that have actually realized high growth rates) on subsequent
macroeconomic growth in a sample of high and low-income countries, in the period 2002-2005.
Our empirical evidence shows that once we control for the share of ambitious entrepreneurs the
overall positive effect of entrepreneurship on macroeconomic growth disappears. Growthoriented
entrepreneurship seems to contribute heavily to macroeconomic growth in both low- and
high-income countries. In low-income countries, the overall positive effect of entrepreneurship
on macroeconomic growth does not disappear after introducing the share of ambitious entrepreneurs into the statistical model. In contrast to ambitious entrepreneurship in nascent and young businesses, established high-growth firms do not seem to contribute to macroeconomic growth.These established high-growth firms seem to flourish in countries with high levels of entrepreneurship in general, while there appears to be no connection between the rate of high-growth firms and the share of ambitious entrepreneurs.