Ch. 9: Venture Capital 507
Ta b l e 6
The size of the venture capital pool in 21 nations in 1995. I use Jeng and Wells’ figures for early-stage funds
in each country outside the U.S. because I believe it to be most comparable to venture capital funds as defined
in the U.S. Figures for Australia and New Zealand are 1994 estimated levels; figures for Israel are a 1995
estimate; and figures for Portugal are the actual level in 1994. All dollar figures are in millions of current U.S.
dollarsCountry Total venture capital under management
Australia 54
Austria 0.4
Belgium 8
Canada 182
Denmark 4
Finland 1
France 35
Germany 116
Ireland 1
Israel 550
Italy 60
Japan 11
Netherlands 100
New Zealand 1
Norway 7
Portugal 9
Spain 24
Sweden 9
Switzerland 1
United Kingdom 36
United States 3,651Source: Compiled fromJeng and Wells (1999), as slightly amended by the author.young firms without long histories of positive earnings. It is often unclear where to be-
ing the process of duplicating the success of the United States. Only very recently have
researchers begun to examine the ways in which policymakers can catalyze the growth
of venture capital and the companies in which they invest. (Three recent exceptions are
Irwin and Klenow (1996), Lerner (1999), andWallsten (1996).) Given the size of re-
cent initiatives undertaken both in the United States and abroad (summarized inLerner,
1999 , andGompers and Lerner, 1999a), much more needs to be done in this arena.
References
Admati, A., Pfleiderer, P., 1994. Robust financial contracting and the role for venture capitalists. Journal of
Finance 49, 371–402.
Aghion, P., Bolton, P., 1992. In incomplete contracts approach to financial contracting. Review of Economic
Studies 59, 473–494.