The Swedes sure seem to think so. Per capita Swedish entrepreneurship is like 7x the rest of the euro zone, and they’re convinced that it’s that aspect of the social safety net that help prop up that high level of personal risk taking.
It's not the only factor for sure, but it definitely contributes.
Jokingly Swedish and Spanish colleagues have said that weather probably plays a part too - because it's so cold outside, lots of time is spent indoors - some of it with friends socialising or chilling (they even have a word for it, Fika), but not only. So you have lots of opportunities to read, think, explore, experiment.
In contrast, in Spain the weather is often nice and sunny, so you're outside more often, with friends, drinking and eating. You don't really have a lot of alone time at home to think and tinker and innovate.
It's purely anecdotal, but there might be something to it.
The swedes do claim this is one of the things that leads to higher entrepreneurship, but yeah, it's certainly not an explanation in and of itself. Good contrary example is the UK - they also have the NHS, but real estate is so expensive that they can't generally acquire premises for HW labs.
I'm on mobile and can't search well but it's a topic that's been discussed on HN many times before.
