Workshop on

Venture Capital, Entrepreneurship and Public Policy

Call for Papers

Venture capital is widely considered to be particularly successful in selecting, funding and coaching innovative entrepreneurial firms. Public finance literature studies the effects of taxes on risk taking in terms of occupational choice and entrepreneurship, including problems of adverse selection and moral hazard. The special role of venture capital is neglected.

Different from other intermediaries, venture capitalists are active investors who not only provide finance but also add value. Finance literature has emphasised the role of venture capitalists in selecting, contracting, monitoring and advising young firms; it does not usually focus on the real effects of venture capital and has not explored the role of public policy.

The workshop aims to bring together these separate fields and to develop possible policy approaches. The following list of potential topics should not be considered as exhaustive:

• Supply of (high tech) entrepreneurs
• Venture capital fund raising and the supply of risk capita
• Supply of experienced venture capitalists
• Aspects of the venture capital investment process
• Real effects of venture capital on employment, innovation and growth
• The role of stock markets
• Taxation of the venture capital industry.

Empirical as well as policy oriented, analytical papers are invited. Papers should also be accessible to a policy oriented, non-technical audience.

Keynote speakers
Robin Boadway, Queen's University:
Information Problems in Start-up Entrepreneurship: The Public Finance View
Thomas F. Hellmann, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business:
Determinants of the Venture Capital Industry: A Financial Economics Perspective

The deadline for submitting papers, or 2-3 page abstracts, is May 31, 2002. Authors will be notified no later than June 30 whether their paper has been accepted. Papers will be subjected to an external refereeing process and then published in the CESifo Seminar Series with MIT Press. Papers or abstracts should be sent in PDF format to office@CESifo.de.

CESifo will provide meals and accommodation and will reimburse economy travel costs for participants with accepted papers, with the understanding that the paper be submitted to the conference volume. Please do not hesitate to contact the conference organisers for further details:
Vesa Kanniainen (University of Helsinki) [kanniain@valt.helsinki.fi]
Christian Keuschnigg (University of St.Gallen, IFF): [Christian.Keuschnigg@unisg.ch]