"This paper demonstrates that levels of entrepreneurship can be greatly affected by the general policy environment. Using a state-level panel, we estimate the effects of several policy variables on rates of entrepreneurship and find that bankruptcy exemptions, corporate tax rates, and the level...

Purpose Existing literature has expressed significant pessimism about the outcomes of foreign aid received by developing nations. Foreign aid can lead to negative outcomes by generating greater rent-seeking opportunities and creating aid dependence. While aid’s negative impact has been...

Entrepreneurship is the main engine of economic growth and prosperity. Previous research has explored both the factors that make individuals more likely to be entrepreneurs and the economic policies that foster entrepreneurial activity. In this paper we explore, for the first time, the...

In the economic development literature, cultural diversity (for example, ethnolinguistic fractionalization) has been shown to have a negative impact on economic outcomes in many underdeveloped countries. We hypothesize that the impact of diversity on economic performance depends on the quality...

In the economic development literature, cultural diversity has been shown to have a positive impact on economic outcomes. A culturally diverse society or interaction among different cultures encourages exchange and competition and generates efficient outcome. Our paper hypothesizes that a...

Baumol's (1990) theory of productive and unproductive entrepreneurship is a significant recent contribution to the economics of entrepreneurship literature. He hypothesizes that entrepreneurial individuals channel their effort in different directions depending on the quality of prevailing...