Abstract:This paper models economic policy uncertainty into venture capitalists' decision-making process, proving that economic policy uncertainty reduces venture capitalists' risk-taking both directly and indirectly. Using the matched data of China's economic policy uncertainty and venture capital investments over the period of 1996~2016, this paper empirically examines the impact of economic policy uncertainty on risk taking and provides suportive evidence for the hypotheses. It is found that economic policy uncertainty negatively impacts risk taking and reduces venture capital investments into early-stage and high-tech entrepreneurial firms. Further, the exit success performs a mediating effect between economic policy uncertainty and risk-taking. Specifically, as the economic policy uncertainty increases, the number of venture capitalists' successful exits from entrepreneurial firms through IPO or M&A declines. Venture capitalists are less able to successfully exit, or they have to hold shares for a long time and receive low returns even though they managed to successfully exit from entrepreneurial firms with increasing economic uncertainty, so that they are less inclined to take risks. The results suggest that providing and maintaining stable economic policies are crucial to guide venture capital towards early-stage and technological firms.