Poverty levels represent an important indicator of economic development. A widely-held view among scholars is that formal institutions provide the foundation to support entrepreneurial activity that, when robust, can support economic development. Scholars typically examine the influence of specific formal institutions, such as property rights, tax policies, infrastructures, or otherwise. Herein, I seek to complement and build upon this extant research by elaborating a system-level view of institutions. Interfaces, tradeoffs and externalities are discussed as three key characteristics of institutional systems alongside system-level considerations for each of these characteristics (i.e., institutional coordination, cooperation and direction that can take place at interfaces; institutional imbalances that can occur with tradeoffs; and institutional ambiguities and territoriality that can exist because of externalities). I then describe how these system-level considerations influence entrepreneurial activities and the implications for poverty in two illustrative contexts: base-of-the-pyramid markets and entrepreneurial ecosystems. I conclude with a discussion of the intended contributions and implications of this work.

中文翻译：

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机构的系统层面的观点：创业与贫困的考虑

贫困水平是衡量经济发展的重要指标。学者们普遍持有的观点是，正式机构为支持创业活动提供了基础，当这些活动强大时，可以支持经济发展。学者们通常会研究特定正式制度的影响，例如产权、税收政策、基础设施或其他方面。在此，我试图通过详细阐述制度层面的观点来补充和巩固现有的研究。接口、权衡和外部性被讨论为制度系统的三个关键特征，以及对这些特征中的每一个的系统级考虑（即，可以在接口处发生的制度协调、合作和指导；权衡可能发生的制度失衡；以及由于外部性而可能存在的制度模糊性和地域性）。然后，我描述了这些系统层面的考虑如何影响创业活动以及在两个说明性背景下对贫困的影响：金字塔底部市场和创业生态系统。最后，我讨论了这项工作的预期贡献和影响。