Global Entrepreneurship and the United States

Abstract : This paper looks at the performance of the United States on the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI), which captures the contextual features of entrepreneurship. The index builds on and improves earlier measures by capturing quantitative and qualitative aspects of entrepreneurship. It measures entrepreneurial performance in 71 countries over three sub-indexes, 14 pillars, and 31 individual and institutional variables. The United States appears among the top entrepreneurial economies and ranks third on the GEDI. It performs very well on the aspirations subindex but lags somewhat on the attitudes and activity sub-indexes. At the pillar level, the United States is strong in startup skills, competition, and new technology but weak in cultural support, tech sector, and high-growth business. U.S. performance appears be stronger on institutional variables than on individual variables. The United States? apparent weakness in the tech sector and its lack of cultural support for entrepreneurship, coupled with lack of high-growth business can be traced to a number of sources. Chief among these are the changing political environment and international volatility, the bursting of the tech sector bubble of the 1990s, the recent recession, and the improving performance of other counties. However, despite some drawbacks, U.S. performance on the index remains strong.