Minding their own business: why does the United States produce so many successful young entrepreneurs?

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Bill Gates founded Microsoft when he was 19. Facebook was the brainchild of Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard University sophomore at the time. And a recent study showed that the United States has a higher business startup rate among 18- to 24-year-olds than 35- to 44-year-olds.

Why has the U.S. produced so many successful young entrepreneurs? Ben Casnocha, 19, author of My Start-Up Life: What a (Very) Young C.E.O. Learned on His Journey Through Silicon Valley, offers dues.

Ben was 14 when he started Comcate Inc., a Web-based service for helping local governments manage customer service.

He had no format education in marketing but, as a suburban American teen, he was exposed to intense commercial marketing every day. At age 12, Ben decided to become an entrepreneur after seeing Apple's "Think Different" ad.

He called on numerous mentors. Some talented and busy people, presumably impressed by the young man, decided to support his enterprise.

One reason young entrepreneurs Like Ben are so successful, is that so many older and wealthier people are witting to help them.

Why take the Bens of the world so seriously?

Compared with teens in other countries, American youth play a much more influential rote in society. They enjoy a remarkable degree of autonomy and are Likely to be working on their own projects, rather than being directed by parents and teachers.

American teens receive higher allowances, have greater access to credit cards, and have more money to spend on culture--or on starting their own business.

In addition, the new ideas and business principles behind the Web have carved out the ideal territory for the young. Years of experience are critical to improving a tong-familiar product, like bread. But completely new, outside-the box ideas--which typically come from the young--are more important for founding Napster or YouTube.

In 2006, Business Week ranked Ben as one of America's top young entrepreneurs, and he is only now enrolling at Claremont McKenna College in California.

It's a common American Dream to want to start one's own business, and this cultural influence spreads to the young.

"If starting a business wasn't 'cool,'" Ben wrote in an e-mail message, "I doubt very many teens would partake."

Tyler Cowen is a professor of economics at George Mason University in Virginia.