Building the Rural Economy with High-Growth Entrepreneurs
回顾了美国农村创业活动，指出高增长企业家对社区经济贡献巨大，但农村地区缺乏这类企业家，并讨论了政策制定者鼓励高增长企业家的新方式。
Entrepreneurs create economic growth in their communities by forming new firms. Each year during the past decade, more than half a million businesses were started that added new jobs in the United States. In the 1990s, during the longest economic expansion in the United States economy, the majority of new jobs were created by small and medium-sized entrepreneurs operating highgrowth businesses. Because entrepreneurs are such a wellspring of growth in the economy, many rural policymakers have shifted their long-time focus of recruiting existing firms, such as branch plants, to developing new entrepreneurs. Most policymakers recognize that entrepreneurs usually start out with limited financing as small or medium-sized firms operating in a variety of industries and places. As a result, policies generally support a wide range of entrepreneurs. However, policies often fail to recognize that the benefits of entrepreneurs can vary dramatically, depending on the entrepreneur’s desire to build a high-growth business. And rural areas often lack these high-growth entrepreneurs. This article presents a fresh review of entrepreneurial activity in rural America and discusses some of the new ways policymakers are beginning to encourage high-growth entrepreneurs in their communities. The first Jason Henderson is an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. This article is on the bank’s website at www.kc.frb.org. 45 46 FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF KANSAS CITY section discusses the benefits entrepreneurs offer communities. The second section examines the pattern of entrepreneurship in rural areas and the difficulties many rural communities face in supporting highgrowth entrepreneurs. The third section discusses some of the policies supporting the startup and growth of this valuable resource.