Overcoming Barriers to Entrepreneurship in the United States

by Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Donald J. Bruce, Tami Gurley-Calvez, William E. Even, Robert W. Fairlie

Overview

Overcoming Barriers to Entrepreneurship compiles academic discussions of real and perceived barriers to the founding and running of small businesses in America. Each chapter illustrates how policy and economic environment can hinder business owners, and suggests what can be done to help them. Starting with venture capital access in Silicon Valley during the Internet bubble, the book goes on to question the link between personal wealth and entrepreneurship, to investigate how federal tax rates effect small-business creation and destruction, to explain the low rate of self-employment among Mexican immigrants, and to suggest how pension coverage can be increased in small businesses. Concluding with an attempt to qualify what makes an entrepreneur, Overcoming Barriers to Entrepreneurship argues that policymakers need not create incentives for entrepreneurs to create new businesses, though there is a great deal they can do to encourage entrepreneurs by removing legal and economic roadblocks to business creation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739121115
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	02/19/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	174
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.13(h) x 0.61(d)

About the Author

Diana Furchtgott-Roth is senior fellow and director of the Center for Employment Policy at the Hudson Institute.

Table of Contents

Chapter 0 7 Success Stories from the Telecom Industry: How to Become an Entrepreneur
Chapter 1 Table of Contents
Chapter 2 Acknowledgements
Chapter 3 List of Contributors
Chapter 4 List of Biographies
Chapter 5 1 What are the Barriers for Entrepreneurs?
Chapter 6 2 Easier Access to Venture Capital in Silicon Valley
Chapter 7 3 Do Household Savings Encourage Entrepreneurship?
Chapter 8 4 Federal Tax Policy and Small Business
Chapter 9 5 Mexican Immigrants and the Entrepreneurship Gap
Chapter 10 6 Improving Pension Coverage at Small Firms

Editorial Reviews

Overcoming Barriers brings high-level analysis to entrepreneurship....The seven essays are well organized and nicely edited.
— Thomas W. Hazlett

The Weekly Standard

The economic and social factors under which entrepreneurship thrives has been a neglected topic when compared to its economic importance as a contributor to growth, partly because it can be challenging to measure and isolate causal factors. This book is exceptional both for the quality of its empirical work, which does an excellent job identifying and measuring the relative importance of various causal factors (access to external funding, family wealth, the effects of taxes, and language or cultural barriers that explain the low levels of entrepreneurship among some minorities) and the variety of thoughtful perspectives brought to bear on the topic. The conclusions offer relevant and clear implications for policymakers interested in boosting entrepreneurship.

Charles Calomiris

Overcoming Barriers brings high-level analysis to entrepreneurship....The seven essays are well organized and nicely edited.

The Weekly Standard - Thomas W. Hazlett

Overcoming Barriers brings high-level analysis to entrepreneurship....The seven essays are well organized and nicely edited.--Thomas W. Hazlett "The Weekly Standard "

The economic and social factors under which entrepreneurship thrives has been a neglected topic when compared to its economic importance as a contributor to growth, partly because it can be challenging to measure and isolate causal factors. This book is exceptional both for the quality of its empirical work, which does an excellent job identifying and measuring the relative importance of various causal factors (access to external funding, family wealth, the effects of taxes, and language or cultural barriers that explain the low levels of entrepreneurship among some minorities) and the variety of thoughtful perspectives brought to bear on the topic. The conclusions offer relevant and clear implications for policymakers interested in boosting entrepreneurship.--Charles Calomiris, Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions, Columbia Business School

From the Publisher