“And Yet It Moves”: National Entrepreneurial Culture and Entrepreneurship-Friendly Policies: Evidence From OECD Countries

Abstract

Abstract This paper investigates the impact of public policies aimed to foster entrepreneurship on the national entrepreneurial culture of a country. While most of the existing studies focus on the direct impact of policies on entrepreneurship outcomes, we propose that the impact of policies on entrepreneurial culture may be even more important for the development of economies in the long term. Using data for 36 OECD countries in the period 2002–2014, we investigate econometrically the impact of policies on culture usually associated with entrepreneurship and find that such impact is stronger for policies that address a broader target of potential beneficiaries, rather than a narrow one. Moreover, we find that, among the values that are usually associated with entrepreneurial activity, entrepreneurship-friendly policies foster those that are related to creativity, innovation and risk taking, but not those that relate to individualism and the belief that success is achieved through one’s own personal efforts. Lastly, we find that the positive impact of policies on culture only applies to the countries with a higher initial level of entrepreneurial culture, and not to the countries with lower initial levels.