Most countries have set up structures and programs for new business creation and financing. We analyze strategies implemented in France, Germany and United Kingdom, where the proportion of government funds in venture capital financing is significantly smaller than in the Quebec, yet the rate of...

Acknowledging that securities regulation penalizes small growing firms in their attempt to raise equity capital, most of the Canadian provinces have recently reformed their exemption rules. These rules allow the issuance of securities outside the boundaries of securities regulation. The rules...

We analyze the survival and success of a large sample of Canadian penny stock initial public offerings (IPOs), launched mostly by small and unprofitable firms from 1986 to 2003. The failure rate of these IPOs is lower than the one observed in the U.S. for larger IPOs, probably because of lax...

The Quebec Stock Savings Plan (QSSP) is one of the oldest tax expenditures programs put in place by the Quebec government to capitalize small businesses. Subsequently adopted by other provinces, QSSP is primarily intended to increase the demand for newly issued shares of small businesses. This...

L'idée d'instaurer une commission nationale des valeurs mobilières au Canada a été récemment remise de l'avant. Pourtant le débat ne repose sur aucune étude empirique rigoureuse. La majorité des arguments avancés pour appuyer la thèse de l'inefficacité de la réglementation des...

The idea of setting up a national securities commission in Canada has recently returned to the forefront. However, the debate is not based on a rigorous empirical study. Most arguments put forward to support the idea of the inefficiency of securities regulation are not supported by regulatory...

In just several years, Israel developed a strong venture capital industry that places it among the top countries in terms of capital-GDP ratio. The strategy of the Israeli government was twofold. First, the government strongly stimulated the demand for venture capital, using R&D grants,...