It seems to be paradoxical that, at the beginning of the 1990s, when technical change seemed to play an unprecedented role in the U.S. welfare, that small firms emerged as a driving force of the U.S. economy. It is usually assumed that technological change requires the quantities of research and...

A growing body of evidence has documented the critical role that entrepreneurs play in fostering economic growth. But entrepreneurs can only be expected to take risks in 'open settings', where individuals and firms are free to contract with one another. In this important book, leading economists...