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We investigate the impact of country R&D on the allocation of self-employment across different types, where types are identified based on occupational status and start-up motive. We first conduct a literature review based on which we consider the self-employed with employees to be of higher 'quality' (in terms of their overall contribution to the economy) compared to independent own-account workers, who in turn may be considered of higher 'quality' than dependent self-employed workers. Similarly, we also consider opportunity self-employed to be of higher 'quality' than necessity self-employed. Our empirical analysis then shows that the level of a country's R&D expenditures increases the share of self-employed with employees and that of opportunity self-employed (i.e. the self-employment types associated with higher 'quality') at the cost of the shares of dependent self-employed and necessity self-employed. Higher R&D expenditures at the country level thus increase the quality of self-employment in the country.

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Although trademarks are the most widely used form of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) by firms across all economic sectors worldwide, this indicator is a much less exploited information resource in empirical analysis compared with patents. Our work addresses this gap by investigating the relationship between trademark registration and entrepreneurial activity using data for 33 European countries. Our empirical results show a positive and significant relationship between the share of the self-employed workforce in a given country that can be considered 'entrepreneurial' -which we associate with the share of Kirznerian entrepreneurs-and trademark registration at the country level. These results have important implications for scholars, practitioners and policy makers, which are discussed in this work.