Author Description

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.