Public Policy to Promote Entrepreneurship: A Call to Arms

30 Pages Posted: 8 Feb 2016 Last revised: 10 Mar 2016

See all articles by Zoltan J. Acs

Zoltan J. Acs

Schar School of Policy and Government

Thomas B. Astebro

HEC Paris - Economics and Decision Sciences

David B. Audretsch

Indiana University Bloomington - School of Public & Environmental Affairs (SPEA)

David T. Robinson

Fuqua School of Business, Duke University; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative

Date Written: January 6, 2016

Abstract

We debate the motivation for and effectiveness of public policies to encourage individuals to become entrepreneurs. Reviewing established evidence we find that most western world policies do not greatly reduce or solve any market failures but instead waste taxpayers’ money, encourage those already intent on becoming entrepreneurs, and mostly generate one-employee businesses with low growth intentions and a lack of interest in innovating. Most policy initiatives that would have the effect of promoting valuable entrepreneurship would not be recognizable as such, because they would primarily address other market failures: a central-payer healthcare would remove health-care related distortions affecting employment choices; greater STEM education would produce more engineers of which some start valuable new firms; and labor market reform to encourage hiring immigrants in jobs they have been educated for would reduce inefficient allocation of talent to entrepreneurship.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; public policy

JEL Classification: L26

Suggested Citation

Acs, Zoltan J. and Astebro, Thomas B. and Audretsch, David B. and Robinson, David T., Public Policy to Promote Entrepreneurship: A Call to Arms (January 6, 2016). Duke I&E Research Paper No. 16-9, HEC Paris Research Paper No. SPE-2016-1137, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2728664 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2728664

Zoltan J. Acs

Schar School of Policy and Government ( email )

Founders Hall
3351 Fairfax Dr.
Arlington, VA 22201
United States
703-993-1780 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://home.ubalt.edu/zacs

Thomas B. Astebro (Contact Author)

HEC Paris - Economics and Decision Sciences ( email )

Jouy-en-Josas Cedex, 78351
France

HOME PAGE: http://www.hec.edu/Faculty-Research/Faculty-Directory/ASTEBRO-Thomas

David B. Audretsch

Indiana University Bloomington - School of Public & Environmental Affairs (SPEA) ( email )

1315 East Tenth Street
Bloomington, IN 47405
United States

David T. Robinson

Fuqua School of Business, Duke University ( email )

100 Fuqua Drive
Durham, NC 27708-0120
United States
919-660-8023 (Phone)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative ( email )

215 Morris St., Suite 300
Durham, NC 27701
United States

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