Youth entrepreneurship in urban and rural areas: incentive factors and barriers

Aigerim Bolysbayeva, Erika Župerkienė

International Journal of Economics and Project Management, 2026

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DOI 10.66608/2617-085x.2025.3.3.003
Data confidence 70 medium
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Abstract

Youth entrepreneurship plays a key role in ensuring economic growth, creating new jobs and shaping sustainable socio-economic development, especially in the context of the transformation of regional economies. Increasing entrepreneurial activity among young people is seen as an important tool for reducing territorial disparities between urban and rural areas, as well as a factor in diversifying local economies. The purpose of this study is to compare the dynamics of youth entrepreneurship in urban and rural areas, as well as to identify key stimulating and constraining factors influencing the start and implementation of entrepreneurial activity by young people. The methodological basis of the research includes a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. In particular, based on the analysis of scientific literature, the main drivers and barriers of entrepreneurial activity of young people, including institutional, economic, educational and infrastructural factors, are systematized. The empirical part of the study is based on an analysis of official statistical data characterizing the dynamics of self-employed youth in the country as a whole and in terms of urban and rural areas for 2022-2024. The practical significance of the research lies in substantiating the need for a differentiated approach to the formation of a state policy to support youth entrepreneurship, taking into account territorial specifics. The results obtained can be used in the development of regional entrepreneurship support programs, improvement of the entrepreneurial education system, and further scientific research on youth employment and entrepreneurial activity.