Edward Elgar Publishing Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index 2011

`If the key to future global economic growth is the spread of innovation and entrepreneurship in the developing world, how can that spread be encouraged? The first steps are to determine the conditions that favor entrepreneurship, devise a way to measure them, and then assess the gaps and improvements needed in each country. That is what the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index can now provide for the developing world.' - From the foreword by Jack Goldstone The Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index both captures the context features of entrepreneurship and fills a gap in the measurement of development. Building on recent advances in entrepreneurship and economic development, the authors have created an index that offers a measure of the quality of the business formation process in 71 of the most important countries in the world. Zoltan J. Acs and László Szerb expertly capture the contextual feature of entrepreneurship by focusing on entrepreneurial attitudes, entrepreneurial activity and entrepreneurial aspirations. The data and their contribution to the business formation process are supported by three decades of research into entrepreneurship across a host of countries. The unique index construction of individual and institutional measures integrates 31 variables from various data sources into 14 pillars, three sub-indexes and a `super index'. The relationship between entrepreneurship and economic development appears to be more or less mildly S-shaped. The findings suggest moving away from simple measures of entrepreneurship across countries illustrating a U-shaped or L-shaped relationship to more complex measures, which are positively related to development. The model has important implications for development policy. This unique book will be invaluable for researchers, policymakers and entrepreneurs themselves keen to expand their understanding of entrepreneurship and development. Contents: Foreword: Entrepreneurship and Global Growth by Jack Goldstone; Preface; Introduction; 1. The Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index; 2. Entrepreneurship and Economic Development; 3. Methodology and Data Description; 4. Country Standings Review Here is a volume packed with important information on entrepreneurship and management, subjects critical for the growth of the world's economies. Its authors are clear leaders in knowledge about entrepreneurship and its key role in the economy. They provide extensive, relevant, and highly illuminating data on a profusion of countries, organized so as to facilitate their use by others. Those who study the international arena will be particularly grateful for this work.' --William Baumol, New York University 'Looking ahead, the fact that the GEDI is planned to be available for almost all countries in the world by 2015 will be particularly useful to compare and identify constraints to entrepreneurship in developing countries, thereby helping to inform PSD programme design and evaluation.' --Melina Heinrich, The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development About the Author Zoltán J. Ács, Professor, London School of Economics and Political Science and University Professor, School of Policy, Government and International Affairs, George Mason University, US and László Szerb, University Professor and Director, Department of Business and Management Studies, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Pécs, Hungary