Three Policies That Gave Us the Jobs Economy →
Amity Shlaes on what sparked the job growth of the 1980's.
The era didn't start well. The mid-1970s were a dead period. Then suddenly, from 1977 to 1978, new private capital devoted to venture capital increased by 15 times, to $570 million in 1978 from $39 million the year before.
In 1977, public underwritings of firms with a net worth of less than $5 million amounted to a meager $75 million. By 1980 that figure was $822 million, as Michael K. Evans, founder of Chase Econometrics, points out. The venture-capital boom continued down the decades, serving computing, technology, biotech and many other areas.
But what caused this boom? Three policy changes. The first was a [capital gains] tax cut for which this newspaper campaigned. ...
A second policy change came in pension law. ...
A third factor, and one that ensured the boom would continue, was a law ... [that] clarified murky intellectual property rights so that universities and professors, especially, knew they owned their own ideas and could sell them. ...
This entry was tagged. History Jobs Tax Reform Taxes