STATE SUPPORT FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT: A CROSS-COUNTRY COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Abstract

Entrepreneurship can be considered as one of the major sources of economic growth. Often re-garded as crucial for the national economy, supporting entrepreneurial activity remains at the focus of policymakers across the globe. This paper aims at providing an overview of state support policies for entrepreneurship, presenting a benchmark for comparison between experiences of 30 countries with different income level. Two research questionswere posed regarding the difference of state support mea-sures of entrepreneurship depending on income levels and policy implications for other countries. World Bank’s classification of countries by income level – high-income, middle-income and low-income was used in the selection of countries studied. Comparative analysis was chosen as an empirical scientific research method, complemented by content analysis, synthesis, systematization and generalization. Re-search results show the features of each selected group, making it possible to draw up recommendations for developing and least developed countries. The experience described in this paper will help to sys-temize the current practice across countries, learn general patterns for further studies, provides grounds for better policy-making and disseminates best-practice information for entrepreneurship development.

Keywords

• entrepreneurship
• state support
• cross-country analysis
• comparative study