Utilizing a unique data set, Zoltan Acs and David Audretsch provide a rich empirical analysis of the increased importance of small firms in generating technological innovations and their growing contribution to the U.S. economy. They identify the contributions made by both small and large firms to the innovative process and the manner in which market structure, and the firm-size distribution in particular, responds to technological change. The authors' analysis relies on traditional theories of industrial organization and tests existing hypotheses, many of them previously untested due to data constraints. Innovation and Small Firms brings together two large data bases recently released by the U. S. Small Business Administration - one directly measuring innovative activity for large and small firms, the other providing a detailed census of economic activity for all manufacturing firms and plants across a broad spectrum of industries. Acs and Audretsch describe and evaluate the data bases in the context of the literature on innovation, market structure, and firm size. They present their findings on the presence of small firms, small-firm entry in manufacturing, small-firm growth and flexible technology, and mobility and firm size. They compare static and dynamic measures of small-firm viability and address the relationships between R&amp;D, innovation, and productivity, and analyze the interaction between technological regimes and the role of government in innovation.

Innovation and Small Firms (Mit Press)

Business & Money

Audretsch, David B.

Acs, Zoltan

Economics

MIT Press]

The hidden role of philanthropy in enriching America's prosperity―and the world's
Philanthropy has long been a distinctive feature of American culture, but its crucial role in the economic well-being of the nation―and the world―has remained largely unexplored. Why Philanthropy Matters takes an in-depth look at philanthropy as an underappreciated force in capitalism, measures its critical influence on the free-market system, and demonstrates how American philanthropy could serve as a model for the productive reinvestment of wealth in other countries. Factoring in philanthropic cycles that help balance the economy, Zoltan Acs offers a richer picture of capitalism, and a more accurate backdrop for considering policies that would promote the capitalist system for the good of all.
Examining the dynamics of American-style capitalism since the eighteenth century, Acs argues that philanthropy achieves three critical outcomes. It deals with the question of what to do with wealth―keep it, tax it, or give it away. It complements government in creating public goods. And, by focusing on education, science, and medicine, philanthropy has a positive effect on economic growth and productivity. Acs describes how individuals such as Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Carnegie, Bill Gates, and Oprah Winfrey have used their wealth to establish institutions and promote knowledge, and Acs shows how philanthropy has given an edge to capitalism by promoting vital forces―like university research―necessary for technological innovation, economic equality, and economic security. Philanthropy also serves as a guide for countries with less flexible capitalist institutions, and Acs makes the case for a larger, global philanthropic culture.
Providing a new perspective on the development of capitalism, Why Philanthropy Matters highlights philanthropy's critical links to the economic progress, health, and future of the United States―and beyond.

Why Philanthropy Matters: How the Wealthy Give, and What It Means for Our Economic Well-Being

Princeton University Press

Philanthropy has long been a distinctive feature of American culture, but its crucial role in the economic well-being of the nation--and the world--has remained largely unexplored. Why Philanthropy Matters takes an in-depth look at philanthropy as an underappreciated force in capitalism, measures its critical influence on the free-market system, and demonstrates how American philanthropy could serve as a model for the productive reinvestment of wealth in other countries. Factoring in philanthropic cycles that help balance the economy, Zoltan Acs offers a richer picture of capitalism, and a more accurate backdrop for considering policies that would promote the capitalist system for the good of all. Examining the dynamics of American-style capitalism since the eighteenth century, Acs argues that philanthropy achieves three critical outcomes. It deals with the question of what to do with wealth--keep it, tax it, or give it away. It complements government in creating public goods. And, by focusing on education, science, and medicine, philanthropy has a positive effect on economic growth and productivity. Acs describes how individuals such as Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Carnegie, Bill Gates, and Oprah Winfrey have used their wealth to establish institutions and promote knowledge, and Acs shows how philanthropy has given an edge to capitalism by promoting vital forces--like university research--necessary for technological innovation, economic equality, and economic security. Philanthropy also serves as a guide for countries with less flexible capitalist institutions, and Acs makes the case for a larger, global philanthropic culture. Providing a new perspective on the development of capitalism, Why Philanthropy Matters highlights philanthropy's critical links to the economic progress, health, and future of the United States--and beyond.

First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor and Francis, an informa company.

Regional Innovation And Global (Science, Technology and the International Political Economy)

Routledge

Three major international research projects that track data on global institutions in most countries do not track the firm formation process and do not correlate with measures of the firm formation process. For example, the self-employment rate published by the OECD correlates negatively with the Global Competitiveness Index, the Index of Economic Freedom and the Ease of Doing Business. What does this negative relationship mean? Does less economic freedom mean more entrepreneurship? What about the difficulty of starting a business? The Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEINDEX) addresses this paradox in the economic development literature. Building on previous measures of entrepreneurship, the authors define the basic requirements for construction of an entrepreneurship index. • The index should be sufficiently complex to capture the multidimensional feature of entrepreneurship. • There should be indicators referring to quality-related differences. • The index should incorporate individual level as well as institutional variables. The Global Entrepreneurship Index contributes to our understanding of economic development by constructing an index (GEINDEX) that examines the essence of the contextual features of entrepreneurship and fills a gap in the measure of development. The authors develop a Global Entrepreneurship Index that offers a measure of the quality and quantity of the business formation process in 65 of the most important countries in the world. The GEINDEX captures the contextual feature of entrepreneurship by focusing on entrepreneurial attitudes, entrepreneurial activity and entrepreneurial aspirations.

The Global Entrepreneurship Index (Geindex) (Foundations and Trends(r) in Entrepreneurship)

Szerb, László

Business Development & Entrepreneurship

Now Publishers

First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor &amp; Francis, an informa company.

Regional Innovation, Knowledge And Global Change

Regional Innovation, Knowledge and Global Change (Science, Technology, and the International Political Economy Series,)

Among the interesting developments of the 20th century has been the economic rise of such nations as Japan and Taiwan and the relative decline of Latin American countries, of the UK, and so on. In order to understand this ebb and flow, economists have begun to appreciate the evolutionary nature of socio-economic change, the important role that technological and research capabilities play in this dynamic, and the apparently paradoxical observation that globalization typically relies on local behaviour. An analytic lens has been developed by Lundvall, Freeman, Nelson and others, called "the national system of innovation." This approach recognizes both the highly creative nature of economic growth and economic adjustment in a turbulent world and the highly uneven or lumpy distribution of growth. This approach leads to an understanding that economic growth is not a "national" phenomenon, but a highly specific reaction to change: hence the rise of Silicon Valley. What is missing in the national systems approach isa mechanism through which to understand innovation when the realistic unit of analysis is no longer the nation state. In this volume, some of the leading scholars in the field set out to broaden the systems of innovation approach conceptually and empirically, to include both subnational and transnational systems of innovation.

This brief captures the contextual features of entrepreneurship by measuring entrepreneurial attitudes, abilities, and aspirations at both the individual- and country-level. Featuring data from the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI), which measures the quality and scale of the entrepreneurial process in 133 countries around the world, this book provides a tool to help policymakers and governments harness the power of entrepreneurship to address some of the economic challenges faced at the country level. In addition to the yearly data and comparisons, this edition also explores the relationship between entrepreneurship and other measures of development. Distinct from both output-based entrepreneurship indexes (i.e., new firm counts) and process-based indexes (i.e., comparisons of policies and regulations, the GEDI is designed to profile national systems of entrepreneurship. The Index does not simply count new firm registrations nor is it an exercise of policy benchmarking. It also does not focus exclusively on high-growth entrepreneurship; it considers the characteristics of entrepreneurship that enhance productivity, such as innovation, market expansion, globalization, and growth potential. Finally, recognizing that entrepreneurship has a different impact in different economic and institutional contexts, the GEDI combines individual-level data with data that describes national institutions, as well as economic and demographic structures, to provide an institutionally embedded view of the drivers of productive entrepreneurship. 

Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index 2016 (SpringerBriefs in Economics)

Autio, Erkko

Springer

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Acs, Zoltan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Acs, Zoltan

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Acs, Zoltan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Innovation and Small Firms (Mit Press)

Why Philanthropy Matters: How the Wealthy Give, and What It Means for Our Economic Well-Being

Why Philanthropy Matters: How the Wealthy Give, and What It Means for Our Economic Well-Being

Regional Innovation And Global (Science, Technology and the International Political Economy)

The Global Entrepreneurship Index (Geindex) (Foundations and Trends(r) in Entrepreneurship)

Regional Innovation, Knowledge And Global Change

Regional Innovation, Knowledge and Global Change (Science, Technology, and the International Political Economy Series,)

Regional Innovation, Knowledge and Global Change (Science, Technology, and the International Political Economy Series,)

Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index 2016 (SpringerBriefs in Economics)