The Kauffman-RAND Institute for Entrepreneurship Public Policy (KRI) is dedicated to assessing and improving policymaking as it relates to entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship can help address critical issues and enhance value in important sectors, including health care and civil justice, by developing new ways to serve people whose needs are not currently being met, better addressing those needs that are being met and/or doing so at lower cost. KRI supports such value-enhancing entrepreneurship by engaging in research, dissemination, and outreach to improve understanding of the ways in which public policy promotes and impedes entrepreneurs and small business. The Institute was founded in 2004 (as the Kauffman-RAND Center for Regulation and Small Business) with funding from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. KRI leverages and extends RAND research on a wide range of policy topics, including health, civil justice, defense, employment law, consumer law, and securities regulation.
Partnerships
RAND Law, Finance, and Capital Markets Program
KRI is partnering with the RAND Law, Finance, and Capital Markets Program to study the convergence of law, finance, and capital markets in the U.S. and explore the potential implications of policy responses. Through this partnership, RAND hosted a conference on Alternative Litigation Finance in the U.S., May 20-21, 2010 in Washington, D.C.
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The Legatum Institute
RAND partnered with The Legatum Institute, which publishes the annual Legatum Prosperity Index, and the Indian School of Business (ISB), ranked in top 15 globally in business education, to host a unique, path-breaking conference on the role of public policy at the central and state levels on Indian entrepreneurship. Through panels, presentations, and discussion forums, the conference, "Catalysts of Entrepreneurship: Policies for Growth," addressed how entrepreneurship can transform sectors such as infrastructure and education into engines of growth, and the policies needed to support this transformation.
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Conference Proceedings
Controlling health care costs while improving health is the primary challenge facing U.S. health policymakers. The role of innovation in addressing this challenge is controversial, with many seeing innovation as a critical source of rising costs, and others seeing it as crucial to achieving increased quality of care.
A combination of high deductible health plans (HDHPs) and health savings accounts (HSAs) holds promise for expanding health insurance for small firms. This report examines HSA take-up and shopping behavior from a 2008 survey of female small business owners.
Participants at this conference presented research on and discussed policy issues affecting the growth of entrepreneurship in India, with special emphasis on education and the effective utilization of infrastructure. This document summarizes the proceedings and includes several of the speakers' presentations.
The economic burden of providing health insurance for workers increased more for small businesses than for large ones from 2000 to 2005, but the spike did not cause a significant number of small employers to abandon the benefit.
The regulatory environment affects small business differently from the way it affects large ones, sometimes leading to unintended negative consequences. An improved understanding of this effect will help lawmakers develop policy designed to advance entrepreneurship.
In a study examining whether women-owned small businesses are underrepresented among firms contracting with the federal government, RAND found that the results vary depending on the way the measurement is made.
Featured News
KRI and RAND Health Hold Conference Relating to Innovation in Health Care Delivery — Oct. 4, 2011
On October 4, 2011, KRI, in partnership with RAND Health, held an invitation-only symposium titled, "Achieving Social Value-Enhancing Innovation in Health Care Delivery Through Entrepreneurship: What Is the Role of Policy?" Entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, practitioners, and other stakeholders from around the country gathered to discuss how entrepreneurship can drive innovation in health care delivery and to identify policy options for facilitating that innovation. KRI thanks the panelists at the event, including keynote speakers Leonard Schaeffer, M.D. (Senior Advisor to TPG Capital, LP and formerly Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of WellPoint Health Networks, Inc.) and David Lawrence, M.D. (retired Chairman and CEO of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals).
KRI Director Quoted by The Wall Street Journal — Jan. 29, 2011
In the Wall Street Journal article, "Small Business Regulatory 'Burden' Is Tough to Quantify," KRI Director Susan Gates provides comments on the Small Business Administration's September 2010 study that addresses the cost of regulation for businesses.
How Globalization Will Drive Change in the International Practice of Law: Lessons Learned from one of India's Most Prominent Law Firms — Jul. 1, 2010
On July 1, RAND Institute for Civil Justice and the Kauffman-RAND Institute for Entrepreneurship Public Policy hosted Nishith Desai, the founder of Nishith Desai Associates, one of the most prominent law firms in India. The interactive roundtable lunch assembled a diverse group of thirty local thought leaders for a discussion on how globalization is driving innovation and change in the practice of law. This event furthered KRI's keen interest in researching and understanding developments related to the future of legal services.
ICJ Study Identified as One of the Top 10 Corporate and Securities Articles of 2009 — Apr 27. 2010
The ICJ paper, Going-Private Decisions and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002: A Cross-Country Analysis, has been identified by the Corporate Practice Commentator as one of the top 10 corporate and securities articles of 2009. The paper investigates whether the regulatory regime created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) has driven firms in general, and small firms in particular, out of the public capital market.
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SBA Cites KRI Study in Proposing New Rule to Expand Federal Contracting Opportunities for Women — Mar. 2010
The Kauffman-RAND Institute for Entrepreneurship Public Policy (KRI) report, The Utilization of Women-Owned Small Businesses in Federal Contracting, was cited in the U.S. Small Business Administration proposed rule aimed at expanding federal contracting opportunities for women-owned small businesses. Based upon KRI's analysis, the SBA's proposed rule identifies 83 industries in which women-owned small businesses are under-represented or substantially under-represented. The proposed rule also authorizes a set-aside of federal contracts for women-owned small businesses, within certain limitations.
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