[anamax]

> The important figure is on page twenty. 5.5% of Canadians are self-employed with incorporated businesses compared to only 3.6% for the USA. Assuming this figure corresponds to entrepreneurship then there is definitely significant correlation.

That's not the only bogus assumption in your argument. You're also assuming that all other things are equal and that they're measuring the same thing.

I can look at two adjacent blocks in San Jose and find a much larger difference in entreprenurship measured the same way. Yet, healthcare is exactly the same....

[richardjordan]

Right but on a sample size of countries such regional differences will be ironed out. Neighborhood trends within a country are not the same as national trends being referred to. The larger point remains - a fifty percent higher level of self-employed with incorporated businesses (which is a fairly good marker for entrepreneurship unless you can suggest a better one) in the country with the safety net of health insurance.

[anamax]

> The larger point remains - a fifty percent higher level of self-employed with incorporated businesses (which is a fairly good marker for entrepreneurship unless you can suggest a better one)

"fairly good" doesn't imply that it has enough precision to support your 50% claim.

Canadian biz law is different, so I'd expect incorporation rates to be different.

> in the country with the safety net of health insurance.

Nope - the difference is due to hockey and average temperature. After all, if you look at neighboring states, which have those things, the difference goes away.

Or, it's due to the ethnic makeup. Asians in San Jose start biz far more whites, and whites far more than Hispanics and AAs. That alone explains a lot of the difference that you're observing. (Canada is white with some asian. The US is far more diverse.)