Welcome to ‘The Startup State’ - a weekly bulletin from the GEN Policy and Research team highlighting key entrepreneurship news, reports, commentary and features from around the world.
News
- The White House has secured voluntary commitments from leading AI companies to manage the risks posed by AI (The White House)
- U.S. new business applications hit a two-year high in June nearing 496,000 (Reuters)
- The UK Space Agency has identified 11 critical technology areas to strengthen the country’s position in the space sector in its ten-year Space Exploration Technology Roadmap (TNW)
- Uganda has become the latest African country to impose a revenue tax on foreign digital companies including Meta, Twitter, Amazon and Netflix (technext24)
- Israel has opened Eastech, a new business campus in East Jerusalem to lure high-tech companies as part of the city’s effort to increase the participation of the Arab population into the country’s workforce (Times of Israel)
Research
- Leapfrogging and plunging in regional entrepreneurship performance in the United States, with European comparisons
This OECD paper analyses persistence and change in the regional league table of entrepreneurship performance in the U.S. in comparison with England and Wales and West Germany. It identifies the types of regions that improve markedly (“leapfroggers”) or decline sharply (“plungers”) in their league table positions and the reasons for these changes and compares the countries on these issues. The paper also draws out policy implications on regional leveling-up of entrepreneurship activity. - How prevalent are credit-constrained firms in the formal private sector? Evidence using global surveys
This World Bank study develops a measure of firm-level credit constraints by leveraging refinements in survey instruments for a widely used database. Using data on more than 65,000 firms across 109 economies, the study uncovers several insights. The findings suggest that for policies that improve access to credit to be effective, they should go hand in hand with interventions that provide opportunities for firms to expand.
Comment
- Can Africa achieve ‘digital sovereignty’ in an era of Big Tech? (Leo Komminoth, reporter, African Business)
- The pushback against industrial policy has begun (Noah Smith, economist and Substack blogger)
Features
- Why the World Bank Group’s investment arm is bullish about CEE - and wants others to follow suit (Sifted)
- How Egypt’s fintech ecosystem is finding its pace and dragging banks along (TechCabal)
- Japan ramps up support for startups venturing overseas (Japan Times)
To suggest content for inclusion in future editions of 'The Startup State', please email matt@genglobal.org.
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