Venture Capital: A Euro-System Approach

Josh Lerner Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking Harvard Business School and National Bureau of Economic Research During much of the 1970s and 1980s, venture capital and private equity remained largely a United States phenomena. Over the past decade, how­ ever, private equity has spread around the globe, taking particularly firm root in Western Europe-indeed, growing 4,700% since 1984 through 200 I. Today, Europe is the dominant private equity market outside the United States. De...