This file is part of IDEAS, which uses RePEc data


[ Papers | Articles | Software | Books | Chapters | Authors | Institutions | JEL Classification | NEP reports | Search | New papers by email | Author registration | Rankings | Volunteers | FAQ | Blog | Help! ]

The Political Economy of Entrepreneurship: An Introduction

Author info | Abstract | Publisher info | Download info | Related research | Statistics
Author Info
Douhan, Robin () (Department of Economics)
Henrekson, Magnus () (Research Institute of Industrial Economics)

Additional information is available for the following registered author(s):

Abstract

In this introductory chapter to a collective volume dealing with the political economy of entrepreneurship,* we argue, based on a suggested unifying framework, that political economy is a fruitful approach to entrepreneurship. The importance of institutions in structuring such an analysis is also emphasized. The introduction also introduces the selected articles and puts them in context. Vital functions of the capitalist economy are ascribed to the productive entrepreneur, but the selected articles also show that the social value of entrepreneurship must be evaluated as it is realized. Three facets of entrepreneurship are claimed to be of particular importance from a political economy perspective: (i) Entrepreneurship is dynamic in the sense that it adapts to the politically determined institutional framework within which it acts. Under propitious circumstances, it can be a powerful engine of growth, but it can also be channelled in unproductive and destructive directions. (ii) Entrepreneurship enters directly into the political system. The close connection to property rights constitutes a link between entrepreneurship and private versus public ownership and redistribution. Under unfavourable institutional circumstances, rent-seeking and predatory entrepreneurship, via the political system, offer greater profit opportunities than the market. (iii) A political economy approach is necessary in order to understand how the political system shapes the institutional setup. Here, it is emphasized that the distribution of political power is partly determined by economic wealth. Hence, it is relevant to broaden the analysis to the effects on wealth creation and wealth redistribution stemming from entrepreneurial activity.

Download Info
To download:

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. Information about this may be contained in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://www.ifn.se/Wfiles/wp/wp688.pdf
File Format: application/pdf
File Function:
Download Restriction: no

Publisher Info
Paper provided by Research Institute of Industrial Economics in its series Working Paper Series with number 688.

Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Length: 23 pages
Date of creation: 03 Jan 2007
Date of revision:
Publication status: Published in The Political Economy of Entrepreneurship, Henrekson, Magnus, Douhan, Robin (eds.), 2008, pages xi-xxxi, Edward Elgar.
Handle: RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0688

Contact details of provider:
Postal: Research Institute of Industrial Economics, Box 55665, SE-102 15 Stockholm, Sweden
Phone: +46 8 665 4500
Fax: +46 8 665 4599
Email:
Web page: http://www.ifn.se/
More information through EDIRC

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Elisabeth Gustafsson).

Related research
Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Industrial Policy; Innovation; Property Rights; Regulation; Self-employment;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
H32 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Firm
L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
L50 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - General
M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups
O31 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
P14 - Economic Systems - - Capitalist Systems - - - Property Rights

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Acemoglu, Daron & Verdier, Thierry, 1998. "Property Rights, Corruption and the Allocation of Talent: A General Equilibrium Approach," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(450), pages 1381-1403, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Holtz-Eakin, Douglas & Rosen, Harvey S & Weathers, Robert, 2000. " Horatio Alger Meets the Mobility Tables," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 243-74, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Josh Lerner, 1996. "The Government as Venture Capitalist: The Long-Run Effects of the SBIR Program," NBER Working Papers 5753, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Giorgio Bellettini & Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano, 2005. "Special Interests and Technological Change," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 72(1), pages 43-56, 01. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson, 2000. "Political Losers as a Barrier to Economic Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 126-130, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Hans-Werner Sinn, 1996. "Social Insurance, Incentives and Risk Taking," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich.
    Other versions:
  7. Henrekson, Magnus, 2002. "Entrepreneurship: A Weak Link in the Welfare State," Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 518, Stockholm School of Economics, revised 04 Mar 2005. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Bruce, Donald, 2000. "Effects of the United States tax system on transitions into self-employment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(5), pages 545-574, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Jesper Roine, 2006. "The political economics of not paying taxes," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 126(1), pages 107-134, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  10. Christian Keuschnigg & Soren Bo Nielsen, 2001. "Public Policy for Venture Capital," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  11. John McMillan & Christopher Woodruff, 2002. "The Central Role of Entrepreneurs in Transition Economies," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(3), pages 153-170, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Holtz-Eakin, Douglas, 2000. " Public Policy toward Entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 283-91, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Martin T. Robson & Colin Wren, 1999. "Marginal and Average Tax Rates and the Incentive for Self-Employment," Southern Economic Journal, Southern Economic Association, vol. 65(4), pages 757-773, April.
  14. repec:rus:hseeco:278221 is not listed on IDEAS
  15. Ulf Jakobsson & Magnus Henrekson, 2001. "Where Schumpeter was nearly right - the Swedish model and Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 331-358. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  16. Cumming, Douglas J. & MacIntosh, Jeffrey G., 2006. "Crowding out private equity: Canadian evidence," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 569-609, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Holcombe, Randall G, 2002. " Political Entrepreneurship and the Democratic Allocation of Economic Resources," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer, vol. 15(2-3), pages 143-59, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Cesaire Meh, 2005. "Entrepreneurship, Wealth Inequality, and Taxation," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 8(3), pages 688-719, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  19. Brett Anitra Gilbert & David B. Audretsch & Patricia P. McDougall, 2004. "The Emergence of Entrepreneurship Policy," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 22(3_4), pages 313-323, 04. [Downloadable!]
  20. Simon Johnson & John McMillan & Christopher Woodruff, 2002. "Property Rights and Finance," NBER Working Papers 8852, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  21. David de Meza, 2002. "Overlending?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(477), pages F17-F31, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  22. Wenli Li, 1998. "Government loan, guarantee, and grant programs: an evaluation," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, issue Fall, pages 25-52. [Downloadable!]
  23. Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson, 2006. "De Facto Political Power and Institutional Persistence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 325-330, May. [Downloadable!]
  24. Gale, William G, 1991. "Economic Effects of Federal Credit Programs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(1), pages 133-52, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  25. Konstantin Sonin, 2003. "Why the Rich May Favor Poor Protection of Property Rights," Working Papers w0022, Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  26. William M. Gentry & R. Glenn Hubbard, 2000. "Tax Policy and Entrepreneurial Entry," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 283-287, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  27. Fan, Wei & White, Michelle J, 2003. "Personal Bankruptcy and the Level of Entrepreneurial Activity," Journal of Law & Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 46(2), pages 543-67, October.
  28. George J. Stigler, 1971. "The Theory of Economic Regulation," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 2(1), pages 3-21, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  29. Francisco M. Gonzalez, 2005. "Insecure Property and Technological Backwardness," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(505), pages 703-721, 07. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  30. Michael Wohlgemuth, 2000. "Political entrepreneurship and bidding for political monopoly," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 273-295. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  31. Keuschnigg, Christian & Nielsen, Soren Bo, 2003. "Tax policy, venture capital, and entrepreneurship," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 175-203, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  32. Colin Wren, 2002. "Evaluating the effect of soft business support upon small firm performance," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 54(2), pages 334-365, April.
  33. Vincenzo Quadrini, 2000. "Entrepreneurship, Saving and Social Mobility," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 3(1), pages 1-40, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  34. William G. Gale, 1988. "Economic Effects of Federal Credit Programs," UCLA Economics Working Papers 483, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  35. Simon C. Parker, 2003. "Does Tax Evasion Affect Occupational Choice?," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 65(3), pages 379-394, 07. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  36. Donald Bruce & Mohammed Mohsin, 2006. "Tax Policy and Entrepreneurship: New Time Series Evidence," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 26(5), pages 409-425, 06. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Douhan, Robin & Henrekson, Magnus & Eliasson, Gunnar, 2006. "Israel M. Kirzner: An Outstanding Austrian Contributor to the Economics of Entrepreneurship," Working Paper Series 678, Research Institute of Industrial Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
Statistics
Access and download statistics

Did you know? The yearly budget of IDEAS is exactly $0: it relies entirely on volunteer work.

This page was last updated on 2009-11-25.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Connecticut using RePEc data on a server sponsored by the Society for Economic Dynamics.