In the latest edition of the Economist Magazine, the Schumpeter Column offers a nice write up on and exploration of the implications of the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index. From the article:
The index concludes that development and enterprise are correlated. America is the most enterprising big economy. The EU comes second. The rest of the world, including India and China, is far behind. The index spots some interesting wrinkles. On the list of all countries great and small, Denmark comes top and America slips to third place. Four of the five Nordic countries are in the top ten. This suggests that it is possible to combine crackling enterprise with a big welfare state. Japan does abysmally, coming 29th overall and 47th in terms of its attitude to enterprise.
The index is valuable in identifying local bottlenecks. These can be found in many rich countries. Big European countries such as Britain 14th, Germany 16th and France 18th all perform below their potential because of a shortage of venture capital this is puzzling in Britain, the home of one of the world’s great financial centres. Developing countries often perform inconsistently. Latin America’s high scores for attitudes are undermined by its dismal scores for the ability to capitalise on those attitudes. China fares poorly when it comes to competition and the availability of start-up skills. India has a shortage of venture capital. The capital-rich Gulf states score abysmally on launching new products or starting new companies.
