Political economy has been at the core of entrepreneurship research since its conception. Although the entrepreneur is frequently regarded as the key figure in the capitalist system, academic research in economics has for a long time overlooked the entrepreneur in its analyses of growth. In terms of political economy this neglect has been even more glaring. These volumes bring together the most important contributions from a very scattered and disparate research field. The collection provides scholars, postgraduates, and students of economics and entrepreneurship with a systematic exposition of a largely undefined field of research.

This open access book examines the challenges and issues caused by a move to a marketized education system in Sweden. Observing the introduction of the school voucher system and a postmodern social constructivist view of knowledge, the move away from objective knowledge is identified as the core reason for Sweden's current education crisis. The impact of declining education standards on the labor market is also discussed. This book highlights the issues seen in Sweden and suggests policies that can improve education in the rest of the Western world as well. It will be relevant to students and researchers interested in education and labor economics.

This open access book examines the challenges and issues caused by a move to a marketized education system in Sweden. Observing the introduction of the school voucher system and a postmodern social constructivist view of knowledge, the move away from objective knowledge is identified as the core reason for Sweden's current education crisis. The impact of declining education standards on the labor market is also discussed. This book highlights the issues seen in Sweden and suggests policies that can improve education in the rest of the Western world as well. It will be relevant to students and researchers interested in education and labor economics.

This open access book builds on the European Union's (EU) Horizon 2020 project 'Financial and Institutional Reforms for an Entrepreneurial Society' (FIRES). The authors outline how Europe can move towards more inclusive, innovative and sustainable growth through reforms that will rekindle its entrepreneurial spirit. Based on decades of research and countless discussions with stakeholders, the book also features the FIRES project's full list of policy interventions and institutional reforms that can help policymakers make that agenda a reality.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. The authors of this book advise the economies of the European Union to become more entrepreneurial in promoting innovation and economic growth. The authors propose a reform strategy with respect to several aspects to achieve this goal. Starting with the rule of law and the protection of property rights; the tax system; the authors deal with regulations governing savings, capital and finance, and the organization of labor markets and social insurance systems. Framework strategies related to the regulations governing goods and service markets, bankruptcy and insolvency are also put forward. A core understanding and future path is also provided towards R&D, commercialization and knowledge spillovers; human capital investments; and informal institutions.

This open access book builds on the European Union's (EU) Horizon 2020 project 'Financial and Institutional Reforms for an Entrepreneurial Society' (FIRES). The authors outline how Europe can move towards more inclusive, innovative and sustainable growth through reforms that will rekindle its entrepreneurial spirit. Based on decades of research and countless discussions with stakeholders, the book also features the FIRES project's full list of policy interventions and institutional reforms that can help policymakers make that agenda a reality.

As economists and policymakers strive to understand the causes of the global financial crisis, pinpointing the relationship between government size and economic growth is crucial. In this incisive economic study, Andreas Bergh and Magnus Henrekson find that in wealthy countries, where government size is measured as total taxes or total expenditure relative to GDP, there is a strong negative correlation between government size and economic growth-where government size increases by 10 percentage points, annual growth rates decrease by 0.5 to 1 percent. Bergh and Henrekson stress that statistical correlations, even when highly significant, are not law. Some countries with high taxes enjoy above-average growth, and some countries with small governments have stagnant economies. The Scandinavian welfare states, for example, have enjoyed steady growth over the last decade despite their large governments. However, these nations compensate for high taxes by employing market-friendly policies in other areas, such as trade openness and inflation control. Government Size and Economic Growth concludes that, in every case, economic freedom is a crucial determinant of economic growth_suggesting that government intervention in the marketplace may be the wrong approach to solving the economic crisis.

The growing recognition of the extent to which institutions determine economic outcomes has been one of the key developments in economic research and policy analysis in the last two decades. At the same time, the entrepreneur has made a comeback, resurrected as one of the prime value creators in society. This comprehensive title builds on Baumol's 1990 framework to categorize and classify the growing research field that explores the interplay between institutions and entrepreneurship. It also contains the unique feature of examining the ways in which entrepreneurs themselves shape institutions.

Competencies and Institutions Fostering High-Growth Firms examines high-growth firms, also known as ""Gazelles"", which have become critical to net job creation and economic growth. It analyzes how the institutional framework - the ""rules of the game"" - affects such firms, taking the theory of competence blocs as a point of departure. The three institutional categories that are key areas for the promotion of high growth firms include the tax system, the organization oflabour markets and product market regulations. The authors characterize institutions as either fostering dynamic capitalism, by providing a favourable environment for the emergence of competence blocs and the generation of high growth firms or leading to ""sclerotic capitalism"" by failing to produce such an environment. By analyzing high growth firms through the lens of the theory of competence blocs, Competencies and Institutions Fostering High-Growth Firms offers a more holistic view of economic growth. Rapid firm growth is a complex process requiring a number of complementary competencies. This analysis suggests that the commercialization of innovations and generation of high growth firms would be greatly facilitated if more product markets are contestable and tax structures andlabour market institutions are adjusted to stimulate the emergence of more effective competence blocs.

Innovative Entrepreneurship as a Collaborative Effort: An Institutional Framework synthesizes the authors previous work to draw conclusions and identify new directions. It puts the spotlight on collaborative innovation blocs (CIB) and improves our understanding of how and why entrepreneurial plans are formulated and revised over time. The authors envision an institutional framework that improves the "antifragility" of CIBs and the economic system as a whole, thus enabling individual CIBs and the broader economic system to thrive when faced with adversity. Section 2 discusses how and when collaborations occur in the market order and identify entrepreneurship as an inherently collaborative function. Section 3 describes the collaborative innovation bloc and each of its skill components: entrepreneurs, inventors, early- and later-stage-financiers, key personnel, and customers. Section 4 identifies the most important critical areas affecting CIBs, thus demonstrating the usefulness of this perspective for understanding when innovation comes (and does not come) about. The last section discusses the key takeaways and limitations of the perspective before highlighting fruitful avenues for future research.

Formal economic institutions that have been identified as particularly important for entrepreneurship include the protection of private property, tax codes, social insurance systems, employment protection legislation, competition policy, trade policies, capital market regulation, contract enforcement, and law and order. Yet much remains to be learned concerning the relationship between institutions and entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship and Institutions: A Bidirectional Relationship argues that the view that institutions determine the extent to which entrepreneurial activity is productive is only part of the story. Rather, causality is bidirectional, in that entrepreneurship is also, for better or for worse, one of the main drivers of institutional change. After a brief introduction, Section 2 provides a precursory framework for institutions as functional responses to deviations, followed by an introduction of the idea of entrepreneurs as deviators. Section 3 begins by categorizing the three entrepreneurial responses to institutions-abides, alter and evade-before discussing the first two at greater length. The subsequent two sections are devoted to evasive entrepreneurship with Section 4 defining the concept and discussing the institutional features that make it possible, while Section 5 describes its economic consequences and its potential to usher in institutional change. Section 6 concludes by discussing the implications of this work for policy and future research.

Owner-Level Taxes and Business Activity examines advances in both theoretical and empirical research that paint a clearer picture of the effects of owner-level taxation on business activity. Commonly used macroeconomic models tend to find that taxes at the owner level are "neutral" and have little or no effect on firm activity. However, the conclusion that ownership taxation has no effect on firm behaviour - and on entrepreneurship - is derived from models based on unrealistic simplifications. When complex and more realistic dimensions such as entrepreneurship and corporate governance are incorporated into these models, taxes can affect business activity through these channel. A key lesson from this monograph is that the models used in economics are necessarily simplified. Moreover, it is important for political decision makers to be conscious of these simplifications when the conclusions derived from economic models motivate or are used to justify tax policy decisions. Conclusions from overly simplified models - such as the model that concludes that dividend taxes do not influence firm behaviour- may thus change when additional factors are considered.