There are startup scenes in countries with lots of problems because people don't like to and can't always leave home. Because migration is a choice between countries, immigration statistics are a "market-y" way to look countries as places to work.
For example, if we had a country with huge numbers of educated people but 40% unemployment, we would expect to see lots of web startups from people trying to find something to do - but this would not mean much for the health of their economy in the immediate term. We could pick up this signal by noticing that lots of people were leaving, indicating that being a founder doesn't have to have a positive expected value in order to be worth trying.
Likewise, a country with a great college to corporate campus pipeline might have an artifically depressed startup scene.
There are startup scenes in countries with lots of problems because people don't like to and can't always leave home. Because migration is a choice between countries, immigration statistics are a "market-y" way to look countries as places to work.
For example, if we had a country with huge numbers of educated people but 40% unemployment, we would expect to see lots of web startups from people trying to find something to do - but this would not mean much for the health of their economy in the immediate term. We could pick up this signal by noticing that lots of people were leaving, indicating that being a founder doesn't have to have a positive expected value in order to be worth trying.
Likewise, a country with a great college to corporate campus pipeline might have an artifically depressed startup scene.