IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/967ph.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Direct Effect of Corporate Law on Entrepreneurship

Author

Listed:
  • Guzman, Jorge

Abstract

I estimate the impact of better corporate law on business formation by taking advantage of the adoption of the Model Business Corporation Act (MBCA) across US states in the post-war era. Conceptually, better law leads to a direct effect (more entrepreneurs start firms), and an indirect effect (a better local economy). States adopt new corporate law endogenously, making it difficult to estimate both effects. However, using the expansion of out of state firms into the state (who only gain from the indirect effect) allows controlling for the local economy and, under some assumptions, estimating the direct effect of the law. Difference-in-differences plots show no pre-trends using this approach. Better law increased the rate of new local corporations by 5\% per year, an estimate confirmed in robustness tests and two instrumental variables regressions. One tenth of the new corporations are substitutions from other firm types, and the rest net-new firms. Consistent with a mechanism whereby better law increases investor protection and entrepreneurship, states with more rudimentary institutions benefited more, and states that only did partial adoption of the MBCA saw no benefit.

Suggested Citation

  • Guzman, Jorge, 2020. "The Direct Effect of Corporate Law on Entrepreneurship," SocArXiv 967ph, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:967ph
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/967ph
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/5e70b1940cd06c03f000805b/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/967ph?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Laura Bottazzi & Marco Da Rin & Thomas Hellmann, 2016. "Editor's Choice The Importance of Trust for Investment: Evidence from Venture Capital," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(9), pages 2283-2318.
    2. Simon Freyaldenhoven & Christian Hansen & Jesse M. Shapiro, 2019. "Pre-event Trends in the Panel Event-Study Design," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(9), pages 3307-3338, September.
    3. Alberto Abadie & Susan Athey & Guido W Imbens & Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2023. "When Should You Adjust Standard Errors for Clustering?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 138(1), pages 1-35.
    4. Josh Lerner & Antoinette Schoar, 2005. "Does Legal Enforcement Affect Financial Transactions? The Contractual Channel in Private Equity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(1), pages 223-246.
    5. Simeon Djankov & Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2002. "The Regulation of Entry," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(1), pages 1-37.
    6. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1998. "Law and Finance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1113-1155, December.
    7. L. Bottazzi & M. Da Rin & T. Hellmann, 2007. "The Importance of Trust for Investment: Evidence from Venture Capital," Working Papers 612, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    8. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2004. "The Role of Social Capital in Financial Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(3), pages 526-556, June.
    9. Graeme G Acheson & Gareth Campbell & John D Turner, 2019. "Private Contracting, Law and Finance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(11), pages 4156-4195.
    10. James R. Brown & Gustav Martinsson & Bruce C. Petersen, 2013. "Law, Stock Markets, and Innovation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(4), pages 1517-1549, August.
    11. Ufuk Akcigit & William R. Kerr, 2018. "Growth through Heterogeneous Innovations," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(4), pages 1374-1443.
    12. John Armour & Douglas Cumming, 2008. "Bankruptcy Law and Entrepreneurship," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 10(2), pages 303-350.
    13. David S. Landes & Joel Mokyr & William J. Baumol, 2012. "The Invention of Enterprise: Entrepreneurship from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern Times," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9006.
    14. Lauren Lanahan & Maryann P. Feldman, 2018. "Approximating Exogenous Variation in R&D: Evidence from the Kentucky and North Carolina SBIR State Match Programs," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(4), pages 740-752, October.
    15. R. David Mclean & Tianyu Zhang & Mengxin Zhao, 2012. "Why Does the Law Matter? Investor Protection and Its Effects on Investment, Finance, and Growth," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(1), pages 313-350, February.
    16. Ross Levine & Chen Lin & Lai Wei, 2017. "Insider Trading and Innovation," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 60(4), pages 749-800.
    17. Josh Lerner & Joacim Tåg, 2013. "Institutions and venture capital," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 22(1), pages 153-182, February.
    18. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson, 2005. "Unbundling Institutions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(5), pages 949-995, October.
    19. Tania Babina & Sabrina T. Howell, 2018. "Entrepreneurial Spillovers from Corporate R&D," NBER Working Papers 25360, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Sabrina T. Howell & Filippo Mezzanotti, 2019. "Financing Entrepreneurship through the Tax Code: Angel Investor Tax Credits," NBER Working Papers 26486, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. El Ghoul, Sadok & Gong, Zhaoran (Jason) & Guedhami, Omrane & Hou, Fangfang & Tong, Wilson H.S., 2023. "Social trust and firm innovation," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    2. Luca Grilli & Boris Mrkajic & Gresa Latifi, 2018. "Venture capital in Europe: social capital, formal institutions and mediation effects," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(2), pages 393-410, August.
    3. Pascal Gantenbein & Axel Kind & Christophe Volonté, 2019. "Individualism and Venture Capital: A Cross-Country Study," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 59(5), pages 741-777, October.
    4. Bian, Bo & Li, Yingxiang & Nigro, Casimiro A., 2022. "Conflicting fiduciary duties and fire sales of VC-backed start-ups," LawFin Working Paper Series 35, Goethe University, Center for Advanced Studies on the Foundations of Law and Finance (LawFin).
    5. Xun Wang, 2023. "Stock market, credit market, and heterogeneous innovations," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 23(1), pages 103-129, March.
    6. Paul Brockman & Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami & Ying Zheng, 0. "Does social trust affect international contracting? Evidence from foreign bond covenants," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 0, pages 1-34.
    7. Samaniego, Roberto M., 2013. "Knowledge spillovers and intellectual property rights," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 50-63.
    8. Quentin Dupont & Jonathan M. Karpoff, 2020. "The Trust Triangle: Laws, Reputation, and Culture in Empirical Finance Research," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 163(2), pages 217-238, May.
    9. Allen, Franklin & Chakrabarti, Rajesh & De, Sankar & Qian, Jun “QJ” & Qian, Meijun, 2012. "Financing firms in India," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 409-445.
    10. D'Acunto, Francesco & Xie, Jin & Yao, Jiaquan, 2022. "Trust and contracts: Empirical evidence," LawFin Working Paper Series 32, Goethe University, Center for Advanced Studies on the Foundations of Law and Finance (LawFin).
    11. Bottazzi, Laura & Da Rin, Marco & Hellmann, Thomas, 2009. "What is the role of legal systems in financial intermediation? Theory and evidence," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 559-598, October.
    12. Ding, Xiaoya (Sara) & Guo, Mengmeng & Kuai, Yicheng & Niu, Geng, 2023. "Social trust and firm innovation: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 474-493.
    13. Fei Xie & Bohui Zhang & Wenrui Zhang, 2022. "Trust, Incomplete Contracting, and Corporate Innovation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(5), pages 3419-3443, May.
    14. Andrei Shleifer & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Rafael La Porta, 2008. "The Economic Consequences of Legal Origins," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 285-332, June.
    15. Brandon N. Cline & Claudia R. Williamson, 2020. "Trust, regulation, and contracting institutions," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 26(4), pages 859-895, September.
    16. Ross Levine & Chen Lin & Wensi Xie, 2017. "The Origins of Financial Development: How the African Slave Trade Continues to Influence Modern Finance," NBER Working Papers 23800, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Miguel García-Posada & Juan Mora-Sanguinetti, 2015. "Entrepreneurship and enforcement institutions: disaggregated evidence for Spain," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 49-74, August.
    18. Qin, Wei & Liang, Quanxi & Jiao, Yan & Lu, Meiting & Shan, Yaowen, 2022. "Social trust and dividend payouts: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    19. Carlin, Paul S. & Kidd, Michael P. & Ulubaşoğlu, Mehmet A., 2013. "Does legal heritage affect obesity? The channel of motor vehicle dependence," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 621-633.
    20. Andrea Asoni, 2008. "Protection Of Property Rights And Growth As Political Equilibria," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 953-987, December.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:967ph. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.