Knowledge and Entrepreneurship in Public Policy

Understanding entrepreneurship as alertness to potential profit opportunities and the activities involved with bringing those opportunities to life and public policy as laws, regulations, and activities of government, this volume analyzes the intersection of the two to show how public policy influences entrepreneurship. Using a mix of theoretical and applied research, the contributors argue that policies which incentivize productive entrepreneurship will advance economic well-being, but that the passage of such policies depends in large part on the availability and usage of economic knowledge by policymakers. If policymakers lack the relevant economic knowledge to achieve their desired outcomes, policies will be ineffective in incentivizing productive entrepreneurship.

Christopher J. Coyne is professor of economics at George Mason University and associate director of the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Abigail R. Hall is associate professor of economics at the University of Tampa. Eileen Norcross is vice president of policy research and a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

Section I: How Public Policy Shapes Entrepreneurship in the Private Sector Chapter 1: Framing Our Thinking About Entrepreneurship and Public Policy by Abigail R. Hall Chapter 2: Moral Entrepreneurship: Integrating Equity within Antimicrobial Resistance Innovation by Ximena Benavides Chapter 3: Successful Evasive Entrepreneurship: Nature or Circumstance? Three Case Studies in the Area of Health and Safety Regulation by Alexander Köhler Chapter 4: Exploring the Persistent Effects of Racial Discrimination on Entrepreneurship and Growth by Olivia Gonzalez Section II: Entrepreneurship in Civil Society and in Response to Crisis Chapter 5: "Hot Money": A Hayekian Process of Polycentric Public Entrepreneurship in Currency Formation in Great Depression North Carolina by Thomas Storrs Chapter 6: Sub-Innovation: The Case of Fraccionamiento in Mexico by Carlos Noyola Section III: Public Policy Entrepreneurship Within the Administrative State Chapter 7: Exploring the Interplay of Taxation and Regulation in Institutional Arrangements by Dallin Overstreet Chapter 8: Representation, Taxation, and Policy Entrepreneurship by Natalia Pushkareva Chapter 9: Knowledge and the Efficacy of Energy Efficiency Programs by Arthur R. Wardle Chapter 10: Majority Opinions and the Entrepreneurial Pursuit of Judicial Power by Christian McGuire Chapter 11: Urban Deindustrialization and Its Discontents: A Commentary on the Social Policy Education of President Barack Obama by Michael Lachanski