Is the U.S. Still the Land of Opportunity?
Karen Campbell /
The Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI) report by researchers at the Small Business Administration shows that the U.S. may be slipping in its ability to sustain productive entrepreneurship relative to other countries.
Entrepreneurship plays a critical role in the formation of any economy; it is the critical agent in the productive creation and destruction cycle necessary for any dynamic economy. Public policy creates an institutional environment that can encourage or discourage productive entrepreneurship. Government intervention, though, can also have an affect on societal norms and cultural attitudes.
In the report, Drs. Zoltan Acs and Lazlo Szerb give an overview of a way to measure entrepreneurship by accounting for these complex institutional and demographic aspects. They draw their data from a range of sources, including Heritage’s Index of Economic Freedom. (more…)