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rch and industry that allow for mercialization of new technological research? * How accessible are domestic markets to entrepreneurs? * How easy it to set up a firm in the first place? 3 * Is regulation predictable enough that entrepreneurial opportunities are not converted into opportunities for holdup by bureaucrats and other powerful agents? Supporting Institutions Silicon Valley has a rich array of firms and professionals that specialize in tasks that benefit entrepreneurs―lawyers, accountants, consultants, subcontractors, head hunters, public relations firms, and so on. In addition, Silicon Valley’s environment is said to be particularly fluid, based on working among decentralized actors rather than more centralized mechanisms. Other countries do not have this level of specialized support services because such specialization only pays with a vibrant entrepreneurial sector. The dynamic may be selfreinforcing: the growth of the entrepreneurial sector in Silicon Valley creates the emergence of specialized support services that in turn facilitate the formation of even more startups. The relevant question is how to promote the development of a plex system populated by many plementary institutions. Government Policy Through policy choices the government affects the size and structure of the venture capital industry. Government actions fall into three broad categories. First, the government can have a creative function. In Singapore, for example, the venture capital industry is the result of a series of promotional measures taken by the government. Virtually every government has some program of subsidies or other help to small enterprises. Second, government policies such as tax policies and regulations of venture investments directly affect the venture capital industry. Third, laws and regulations governing pension funds, stock markets, labor markets, patents, and other areas affect the venture capital industry indirectly. Concrete policy questions include the appropriate level of the capital gains tax and the kind of programs the government might use to encourage entrepreneurial activity. The happy venture capitalist diagram is meant to provide an organizing framework for developing a list of other topics and questions. Other, more fundamental questions relate less to specific policy than to the process of government promotion of venture capital, as exemplified by three interrelated policy dilemmas. The first concerns parative advantages. Good opportunities abound in most economies, but these opportunities typically look very different from those in the United States. While highly developed economies in Western Europe and East Asia may have parative advantages in some fields of high technology, many lessdeveloped countries have fewer industries to attract venture capital. India, for example, at first accepted outsourcing for mundane and laborintensive tasks in information technology, but it used these activities as a platform to develop new skills, gradually moving up to higher valueadded tasks such as software development. Not every country would find it advantageous to build the entrepreneurial