Abstract: Thinking of government as entrepreneur is a unique lens through which to view a subset of government actions. The lens is not a template for an evaluation of government policy; rather, it is a characterization that underscores the government's purposeful intent, ability to act in new and innovative ways, and willingness to undertake policy actions that have uncertain outcomes. Our focus is on the U.S. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. We argue that the innovative action of government -the innovative use of public resources through the SBIR program to target and support research in small firms -does lessen innovation barriers that cause small firms to underinvest in R&D. However, this government action is subject to entrepreneurial risk, namely the a priori uncertainty that the funded research will result in a commercialized product, process, or service. We quantify the uncertainty that the government accepts in the context of innovation supported by the SBIR program; or stated alternatively, we quantify the probability that a project funded by the SBIR program will fail to commercialize its results. Our empirical results show that the entrepreneurial risk that characterizes the SBIR program is, on average, somewhat more than the probability of failing to get heads on the toss of a fair coin. Importantly, however, our evidence shows that there is a large range in the entrepreneurial risk that the government accepts-across the projects, the predicted probability of failure covers essentially the entire range from 0 to 1.0. government entrepreneur | small business innovation research | research and

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This paper investigated worker motives for 401(k) contributions with data from the 1995 Survey of Consumer Finances. Employer matching and the ability to withdraw or borrow from the plan were related to greater contributions. In addition, risk tolerance, labor income, and years of working for the current employer were positively related to contributions.

rr1rtrr11-Getting Down to B usin ess

a case study

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This program guide documents a manufacturing job family curriculum that develops competence in generic work force education skills through three courses: Reading Rulers, Charts, and Gauges and Math for Manufacturing Workers I and II. An annotated table of contents lists a brief description of the questions answered in each section. An introduction presents a program abstract and a guide overview. The remainder of the guide is structured according to the four stages in the process of setting up a work force instructional program: partnership building, curriculum development, actual instruction, and evaluation. A detailed table of contents to each section outlines the steps involved in completing each stage. The section on developing partnerships identifies some key partners and structures for achieving their involvement. The section on developing curriculum describes some structures for assessing and

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We are pleased to acknowledge the helpful comments and suggestions of our colleagues David Ribar and Ken Snowden, as well as the able research assistance of Rebecca Klimowicz. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.