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Mastering the Game

The business of America is small business--and entrepreneurship.

Jun 23, 2008, Vol. 13, No. 39 • By THOMAS W. HAZLETT
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Overcoming Barriers to Entrepreneurship in the United States

Edited by Diana Furchtgott-Roth

Lexington, 174 pp., $24.95

Entrepreneurs are the rock stars of the business world. Politicians flatter them, investors clamor to discover them, and corporate executives claim to be them.

Sadly, none of this flash is likely to make it into your college economics class. There, the textbook drearily focuses on land, labor, and capital as the economy's basic ingredients. The entrepreneurs who stir the pot in brash and productive new ways are a mysterious force, difficult to chart with PowerPoint bullets. There is no doubt that innovation and risk-taking--the contributions of these master chefs of the economic stew--drive progress. But they are elusive, and will not hold still for measurements.

This sleek, nifty volume of essays seeks to pursue the beast--and if not to capture it, then, at least, to triangulate its position. Edited by labor economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth, it teaches us why venture capitalists cluster in places like Silicon Valley; why tax cuts may (or may not) encourage entrepreneurial risk-taking; why Mexican immigrants are less likely to go into business for themselves than other U.S. workers; and why larger firms are more likely to offer workers pension plans. Overcoming Barriers brings high-level analysis to entrepreneurship, and its breadth--from investment banking, to tax policy, to immigration, to retirement programs--underscores how far the pursuit ranges.

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