In the context of the present economic crisis, entrepreneurship has re-emerged as a topic of interest both for policy makers worldwide as well as for academic research. A wide range of psychological, economic and sociological factors influencing entrepreneurial activity is presented by the existing literature. The aim of this paper is to identify the economic and institutional factors that influenced entrepreneurial activity both before and during the crisis. Data for 27 countries worldwide from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, World Bank World Development Indicators and World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators international databases were collected for the years 2007, 2009 and 2012. A three stage empirical research was conducted: a comparative analysis of the distribution of the selected variables for the three years, principal components analysis in order to provide an image of the intensity and direction of the relationship between the variables and to characterize the statistical units and econometric modelling to describe the variation of entrepreneurial activity in relation with its economic and institutional determinants. Contrary to expectations, the research findings show that before the crisis, the variation of entrepreneurial activity is explained by the negative influence of the perceived confidence in the rules of society and during the crisis it is negatively influenced by the perceived government effectiveness. The limitations of the research are also presented.