Entrepreneurship policy and economic growth: Solution or delusion? Evidence from a state initiative

The last two decades marked a turning point for entrepreneurship policy, highlighting the crucial role of public policy to generate the conditions that encourage business creation and expansion. As more states design and implement entrepreneurship policies of their own, understanding how these policies can support and harness the full potential of entrepreneurship becomes more critical. This paper uses a quasi-market framework for development competition (Feiock in Journal of Urban Affairs, 24, 123–142, 2002. doi:10.1111/1467-9906.00118) to report on the effects on economic growth of an entrepreneurship policy implemented in 2004 in the state of Kansas as part of the Kansas Economic Growth Act. Specifically, it studies the impact of tax credit funds provided by one of its programs, the Entrepreneurial Community (E-Community) partnership, on the economy of adopter counties between 2007 and 2010. The results from this study indicate the program has no conclusive effects on five general indicators of local economic and entrepreneurial activity.