Comparative Analysis of Factors Influencing Informal Investors of Spain and the United States

Abstract

Informal investors play a significant and critical role in the investment field. Apart from that, informal investors promote entrepreneurship as they are a funding source especially for small and micro entrepreneurs. The objective of this analysis is to identify the factors that characterize the informal investors in Spain and the United States. The basis for this analysis is the data from the website Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) from the period 2001-2015 at the global individual level for Spain and for United Sates. The purpose is to compare the existing differences between the factors that characterize an informal investor in different economic periods (pre-crisis, crisis, post-crisis) in two different entrepreneurial environments, Spain and United States, to identify measures or actions that can be implemented by the national and local organisms to promote informal investment and entrepreneurship.