Entrepreneurship policy is booming in Latin America. However, knowledge about this policy development is still limited and is usually based on best practice reports, policy briefs and position papers published by international institutions. As a first step towards filling this gap, this chapter identifies and analyses the characteristics of and main trends in entrepreneurship policy in recent years. It provides a general overview of entrepreneurship policies at the national level, in a sample of nine Latin American countries, and a deeper analysis of the two with most experience in this field, Brazil and Chile.

Overall, the results of this review show that policies in Latin America tend to combine technical assitance provided by business incubators with seed capital provided by governments. National governments usually operate on a ´second floor´, outsourcing to a network of specialised institutions the direct assistance to entrepreneurs. Although many steps have been taken, the chapter concludes that to advance further, entrepreneurship policy still requires the implementation of more ambitious initiatives aimed at fostering entrepreneurhip education at the different levels, closer integration between entrepreneurship and science and technology policies, reforms to tax and regulatory frameworks, and the development of an adequate supply of entrepreneurial finance.