Entrepreneurship and democracy are often considered complementary, but recent evidence points to a paradox that entrepreneurial activities have increased in undemocratic contexts. Exploring economic and political freedoms, this paper investigates the development of entrepreneurship in Vietnam, an economy characterised by low economic and very low political freedoms. It suggests changes in economic freedom over time influence opportunity perceptions and activities more than absolute levels. We identify key aspects of how culture and institutions have changed, which have been conducive to entrepreneurship. Overall, we show how even small increases in economic freedom stimulate entrepreneurship, even in the absence of political freedom.

创业和民主通常被认为是互补的，但最近的证据表明一个悖论，即创业活动在不民主的情况下有所增加。本文探讨了经济和政治自由，调查了越南企业家精神的发展，该经济体的特点是经济自由度低，政治自由度极低。它表明，随着时间的推移，经济自由的变化对机会感知和活动的影响大于绝对水平。我们确定了文化和制度如何变化的关键方面，这些方面有利于创业。总体而言，我们展示了即使在没有政治自由的情况下，经济自由度的小幅增长也如何刺激企业家精神。