This book analyzes the relative importance of small firms in developed Western nations and Eastern Europe, identifying their exact role and how this role has evolved over the past fifteen years. It reveals that there has been a consistent shift away from large firms and toward small enterprises within the manufacturing sectors of all Western countries, while the role of small firms in Eastern European nations has been remarkably restricted, suggesting that a major challenge for reform in Central and Eastern Europe is to create the strong entrepreneurial sector that exists in the West.

Why has the United States economy successfully moved beyond its chief competitors? This collection suggests that at least some of the answers to the pattern of divergent development can be found in the role of the entrepreneur. By examining the process that new firms and entrepreneurs play in the economy, the essays in this volume make a fundamental contribution to our understanding of the macroeconomy. The public policy implications of this process are clear. Countries that encourage entrepreneurship and free entry will have better macroeconomic performance than those that retard it.

Are Small Firms Important? Their Role and Impact proposes and supports the claim that small firms make two indispensable contributions to the economy. First, they are an integral part of the renewal process that pervades market economies. New and small firms play a crucial role in experimentation and innovation that leads to technological change, productivity and economic growth. Second, small firms are the essential mechanism by which millions enter the economic and social mainstream of American society. The public policy implications for sustained economic growth and social...

This book analyzes the relative importance of small firms in developed Western nations and Eastern Europe, identifying their exact role and how this role has evolved over the past fifteen years. It reveals that there has been a consistent shift away from large firms and toward small enterprises within the manufacturing sectors of all Western countries, while the role of small firms in Eastern European nations has been remarkably restricted, suggesting that a major challenge for reform in Central and Eastern Europe is to create the strong entrepreneurial sector that exists in the West.

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...

Knowledge has in recent years become a key driver for growth of regions and nations. This volume empirically investigates the emergence of the knowledge economy in the late 20th century from a regional point of view. It first deals with the theoretical background for understanding the knowledge economy, with knowledge spillovers and development externalities. It then examines aspects of the relationship between knowledge inputs and innovative outputs in the information, computer and telecommunications sector (ICT) of the economy at the regional level. Case studies focusing on a wide variety...

Why has the United States economy successfully moved beyond its chief competitors? This collection suggests that at least some of the answers to the pattern of divergent development can be found in the role of the entrepreneur. By examining the process that new firms and entrepreneurs play in the economy, the essays in this volume make a fundamental contribution to our understanding of the macroeconomy. The public policy implications of this process are clear. Countries that encourage entrepreneurship and free entry will have better macroeconomic performance than those that retard it.

The spillovers in knowledge among largely college-educated workers were among the key reasons for the impressive degree of economic growth and spread of entrepreneurship in the United States during the 1990s. Prior 'industrial policies' in the 1970s and 1980s did not advance growth because these were based on outmoded large manufacturing models. Zoltan Acs and Catherine Armington use a knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship to explain new firm formation rates in regional economies during the 1990s period and beyond. The fastest-growing regions are those that have the highest rates of...