Two-Tiered Entrepreneurship and Economic Development

Abstract

This paper argues that there are two tiers of entrepreneurship important for economic development. One is concerned with investments in productive technologies that improve productivity and better service consumer needs. The other is concerned with the creation of protective technologies that secure citizens’ private property rights vis-à-vis one another. In the developing world where governments cannot or do not protect citizens against predation, “institutional entrepreneurs” devise private mechanisms of property protection, providing the security required for productive entrepreneurship to grow. However, private protection technologies can be a double-edged sword. While private protection technologies enable some investment and exchange by securing citizens’ property where government does not, potential constraints on these technologies’ effectiveness may simultaneously limit their ability to expand investment and exchange beyond modest levels.