The number of start-ups has skyrocketed in the Netherlands in the past ten years. Has this growth been accompanied by a shift in the spatial patterns of start-ups? This Windows on the Netherlands puts this question to the test and maps the dynamics in the spatial patterns of startups for the period 1996--2013. This is done at the disaggregated spatial level of the municipality. Even though we observe a slight shift of entrepreneurship to the east of the country, the overall spatial patterns in start-up intensity are highly stable: start-up rates are highest in the most urbanised municipalities. As the small spatial scale of analysis potentially allows for much variability, the found stability in the spatial patterns lends additional empirical support to the idea that patterns in start-up rates are highly persistent.

This study addresses the mediating role of settlement patterns in the relationship between urbanization and start-up activity. Places do not operate in a vacuum and to understand the effect of Bown^density on start-up patterns, we need to account for the urban spillovers or borrowed size that they may experience from other places nearby. The results can explain the empirical ambiguity in the relationship between urbanization and start-up patterns: the relationship between urbanization and start-up rates becomes more similar between countries when controlling for countryspecific settlement patterns by including a spatially lagged urbanization variable and variables measuring the distance to urban centers. Accounting for the relative location of places and relevant sorting effects, we find that Bown^density has a consistently negative effect on start-up activity. Yet, access to other places has a generally positive effect. This implies that nearby regions profit from the advantages offered by urban environments without having to deal with the costs involved.