Entrepreneurship, Growth, and Public Policy

Description

While the public policy community has turned to entrepreneurship to maintain, restore, or generate economic prosperity, the economics profession has been remarkably taciturn in providing guidance for public policy for understanding the links between entrepreneurship and economic growth as well as for framing and weighing policy issues and decisions. The purpose of this volume is to provide a lens through which public policy decisions involving entrepreneurship can be guided and analyzed. In particular, this volume provides insights from leading research concerning the links between entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic growth that shed light on implications for public policy. The book makes clear both how and why small firms and entrepreneurship have emerged as crucial to economic growth, employment, and competitiveness as well as the mandate for public policy in the entrepreneurial society.

Zoltan J. Acs is University Professor at the School of Public Policy and Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, George Mason University, Virginia. He is also a Research Scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Economics in Jena, Germany, and Scholar-in-Residence at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Kansas City, Missouri. In addition, he is a Visiting Professor at the University of Pecs in Hungary, where he received an honorary doctorate. Previously, he held the position of Doris and Robert McCurdy Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Robert G. Merrick School of Business, University of Baltimore. He is co-founder and co-editor of Small Business Economics: An Entrepreneurship Journal. Dr. Acs is a leading advocate of the importance of entrepreneurship for economic development. He received the 2001 International Award for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research, on behalf of The Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development. He has published more than 100 articles and 25 books. David B. Audretsch is the Director of the Max Planck Institute of Economics in Jena, Germany. He also serves as a Scholar-in-Residence at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. In addition, he is an Honorary Professor at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Research Professor at Durham University, a Distinguished Professor and the Ameritech Chair of Economic Development and Director of the Institute for Development Strategies at Indiana University, an External Director of Research at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, and a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (London). Dr. Audretsch's research has focused on the links between entrepreneurship, government policy, innovation, economic development, and global competitiveness. Dr. Audretsch is ranked as the 21st most cited scholar in economics and business, 1996-2006. He is co-founder and co-editor of Small Business Economics: An Entrepreneurship Journal. He was awarded the 2001 International Award for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research by the Swedish Foundation for Small Business Research. Robert J. Strom is Director of Research and Policy at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City. His responsibilities include support for academic and policy-oriented research in the field of entrepreneurship. Prior to joining the Foundation in June 1994, Dr. Strom was a visiting professor at the Bloch School of Business at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and vice president of the National Council on Economic Education. Dr. Strom was assistant vice president for public affairs at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City from 1986 to 1991. He was president of the Missouri Council on Economic Education and a Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri-Columbia from 1976 to 1986. Dr. Strom has also been a member of the economics department at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

'This volume contains an important set of papers by leading scholars explaining why entrepreneurship matters. By focusing on the role of entrepreneurship in innovation and economic growth and on how public policy can support this role, this book provides useful insights and an excellent overview. It will be a valuable source of information and inspiration for economists interested in entrepreneurship and growth for years to come.' Bo Carlsson, Case Western Reserve University 'Acs, Audretsch, and Strom have assembled an extraordinary group of contributors to share their insights into one of the most important - and previously neglected - policy topics of our time. Anyone concerned with economic growth over the long term ought to read it.' David M. Hart, George Mason University 'With globalisation under threat, and public expenditure under scrutiny, it is essential that the links between scientific research, technological innovation, entrepreneurship, and productivity growth are widely understood. This timely and authoritative book addresses this need. Re-focusing economic analysis from the accumulation of physical capital to the accumulation of knowledge capital, it restores entrepreneurship and small firm growth to their rightful place at the centre of economic policy debate about international competitiveness.' Mark Casson, University of Reading