, 8 january 2020. [ 4 ] kortum, s. and lerner, j. ( 2000 ), “ assessing the contribution of venture capital to innovation ”, rand journal of economics, 31 ( 4 ), pp. 674 – 692. [ 5 ] samila, s. and sorenson, o. ( 2011 ), “ venture capital, entrepreneurship, and economic growth ”, review of economics and statistics, 93 ( 1 ), pp. 338 – 349. [ 6 ] popov, a. and roosenboom, p. ( 2013 ), “ venture capital and new business creation ”, journal of banking & finance, 37 ( 12 ), pp. 4695 – 4710. [ 7 ] popov, a. ( 2014 ), “ venture capital and industry structure : evidence from local us markets ”, review of finance, 18 ( 3 ), pp. 1059 – 1096. [ 8 ] see financial literacy around the world : insights from the standard & poor ’ s ratings services global financial literacy survey. [ 9 ] see eurostat r & d expenditure. [ 10 ] see chart 1. 2 in the key messages of ecb ( 2020 ), “ financial integration and structure in the euro area ”, frankfurt am main. [ 11 ] de vries, c. e. and hoffmann, i. ( 2019 ), “ great expectations : the new european commission, its ambition and european public opinion ”. eupinions 2019 / 2. [ 12 ] de haas, r., and popov, a. a. ( 2019 ), “ finance and carbon emissions ”, working paper series, no 2318, ecb, september. [ 13 ] the eu is already the largest international market for green bonds : eu entities account for around 46 % of global issuance and around 42 % of the global market is denominated in euro. source : dealogic data and ecb calculations. european central bank directorate general communications sonnemannstrasse 20, 60314 frankfurt am main, germany tel. : + 49 69 1344 7455, e - mail : media @ ecb. europa. eu website : www. ecb. europa. eu reproduction is permitted provided that the source is acknowledged. media contacts copyright 2020, european central bank

their path to becoming industrial leaders. in europe, the development of risk capital markets is being held back by a number of factors and frictions on both the demand and the supply side. for example, cultural barriers to risk taking, such as the stigma of entrepreneurial failure, are rather high ; there is a lack of easily available and harmonised information on firms ; debt investment enjoys a tax advantage over equity investment ; pension products and systems are generally averse to risk capital ; and financial literacy – as well as public investment in fundamental science and market - oriented research and development as a share of gdp [ 9 ] – is lower than in many peer economies. what can the cmu do to stimulate the development of risk capital markets in europe? reforms to this end include reducing the tax advantage of debt, increasing financial literacy, enhancing pension savings and incentivising adequate equity investment by pension funds, and reorienting eu private investment programmes towards more equity investment in high - tech firms and sectors. some wider and more longterm public policy choices include significantly stepped up funding for life sciences and technology, as well as introducing product and labour market reforms. by improving the quality of the commercial projects that require funding, such policies will benefit the development of not only private, but also of public equity markets. the new bi - annual report “ financial integration and structure in the euro area ” published today shows that the level of private equity in europe is not low, unlike that of public equity listed on exchanges. in fact, financing through unlisted equity accounts for a larger share of overall financing in the euro area than in the united states or japan. however, european private equity markets are comparatively less dynamic in the sense that they fail to provide young and innovative firms with sufficient funding or adequate help in expanding. cmu and the sustainable finance agenda to most people in europe, the need for deep and liquid capital markets might not seem the most pressing issue. the latest survey data show that people are more concerned about other topics : climate change and digitalisation. nonetheless, i am convinced that the cmu has an important role to play here and its advancement should be seen in tandem with the eu ’ s efforts to support the transition to a carbon - neutral economy. the cmu and sustainable finance are two mutually reinforcing initiatives and we could benefit from considerable synergies by making progress on both fronts. on the one hand, the development of the cmu could support the eu ’ s drive towards a greene