Aspirations and Intellectual Property in the Worldwide Entrepreneurship Ecosystem

Since 2011, The Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI) measures the health of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in several countries. The index combines multiple dimensions of the entrepreneurial environment and groups the data into three main areas: attitudes, abilities, and aspirations. Entrepreneurial attitudes measure the population's perception of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial abilities identify the entrepreneurs' characteristics and those of their businesses. Entrepreneurial aspirations reflect the quality aspects of startups and new businesses. In addition, since 2012 the U.S. Chamber International IP Index (IP Index) measures the performance of intellectual property systems in several countries. The IP Index was created by the Global Innovation Policy Center - GIPC - and consists of eight specific categories of the intellectual property environment (Patents; Copyrights; Trade Secrets; Commercialization of IP Assets; Enforcement; Systemic Efficiency; Membership in and Ratification of International Treaties). In this paper we aim to assess the relationship between the IP Index and the GEI aspirations, controlling for GEI abilities and attitudes. Based on the GEI and IPI annual data from 2012 to 2018, we estimate a structural model to identify the effects of the IP Index on the entrepreneur's aspirations. Assuming high heterogeneity on the structural relationship across countries, we estimate a quantile regression model in a panel data setting. Other control variables were included, in addition to a dummy variable to capture the particular effect of the European countries on different quantiles of aspirations. Our investigation has not found any studies that test the possible linkage between the GEI components and the IP Index. Our findings show a positive effect of the IP Index on entrepreneurial aspirations, though the magnitude is different across the response quantiles. The results could be useful for formulating public policies concerning entrepreneurship and intellectual property. Our findings also contribute to the debate about the effects of intellectual property systems on different levels of aspirations.