In the second annual "State of Entrepreneurship" address, presented on February 8, 2011, Kauffman Foundation President and CEO Carl Schramm presented policy recommendations to promote entrepreneurship and accelerate economic growth without adding to the deficit. In the address, titled "The Rules for Growth," Schramm cited data illustrating that the majority of all job creation in the United States is driven by young firms and emphasized how changes to specific laws and regulations could enable startups to grow more rapidly.
In conjunction with the Address, Kauffman also released its groundbreaking new book, "Rules for Growth," which features comprehensive essays prescribing a new set of policies for policymakers, legal scholars, economists and business leaders to accelerate economic growth and innovation.
The event also convened a panel of experts and thought leaders on economics, entrepreneurship and growth, including Arthur C. Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute; E.J. Dionne, senior fellow, Governance Studies, Brookings Institution and columnist for The Washington Post; George Priest, director of the John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics and Public Policy at Yale Law School; and Philip K. Howard, founder and chair of the organization, Common Good.
Recommendations discussed at the State of Entrepreneurship and in "Rules for Growth" include:
- Reforming U.S. immigration laws so that more high-skilled immigrants can launch businesses in the United States.
- Improving university technology licensing practices so university-generated innovation is more quickly and efficiently commercialized.
- Reforming the tax code to better encourage entrepreneurial risk-taking, while reforming the research tax credit so it better helps to foster innovation.
- Reforming intellectual property laws to ensure a more thorough examination of patents, allowing for a post-grant opposition process and tiering the patent process by allowing inventors to pay for expedited patent reviews.
