IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejpol/v17y2025i4p192-227.html

The Not-So-Uniform Effects of Trade Secret Protection on Business Entry

Author

Listed:
  • Asli Leblebicioğlu
  • Tanseli Savaşer

Abstract

We explore the consequences of trade secret protection for new business formation in the United States. We find the states that adopt the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA), which enhances intellectual property rights, experience an overall decline in firm and establishment entry rates. This result is driven by the reduction in the establishment entry rates of start-ups and small firms. By contrast, the law increases the establishment entry rates of incumbents and larger firms. The negative impact of the UTSA is larger in industries that rely more on intellectual assets and trade secrets, as well as external-finance-dependent industries.

Suggested Citation

  • Asli Leblebicioğlu & Tanseli Savaşer, 2025. "The Not-So-Uniform Effects of Trade Secret Protection on Business Entry," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 17(4), pages 192-227, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:17:y:2025:i:4:p:192-227
    DOI: 10.1257/pol.20220814
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20220814
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E201465V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/materials/24077
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/materials/24078
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/pol.20220814?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sandra E. Black & Philip E. Strahan, 2002. "Entrepreneurship and Bank Credit Availability," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(6), pages 2807-2833, December.
    2. Ribstein, Larry E & Kobayashi, Bruce H, 1996. "An Economic Analysis of Uniform State Laws," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 25(1), pages 131-199, January.
    3. Randall S. Kroszner & Philip E. Strahan, 1999. "What Drives Deregulation? Economics and Politics of the Relaxation of Bank Branching Restrictions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(4), pages 1437-1467.
    4. Kerr, William R. & Nanda, Ramana, 2009. "Democratizing entry: Banking deregulations, financing constraints, and entrepreneurship," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 124-149, October.
    5. Nicola Cetorelli & Philip E. Strahan, 2006. "Finance as a Barrier to Entry: Bank Competition and Industry Structure in Local U.S. Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(1), pages 437-461, February.
    6. I. P. L. Png, 2017. "Law and Innovation: Evidence from State Trade Secrets Laws," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 99(1), pages 167-179, March.
    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. Jeffrey J. Burks & Christine Cuny & Joseph Gerakos & João Granja, 2018. "Competition and voluntary disclosure: evidence from deregulation in the banking industry," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 1471-1511, December.
    2. Amore, Mario Daniele & Schneider, Cédric & Žaldokas, Alminas, 2013. "Credit supply and corporate innovation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(3), pages 835-855.
    3. Jiang, Tianjiao & Levine, Ross & Lin, Chen & Wei, Lai, 2020. "Bank deregulation and corporate risk," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    4. Cornaggia, Jess & Mao, Yifei & Tian, Xuan & Wolfe, Brian, 2015. "Does banking competition affect innovation?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 189-209.
    5. W. Blake Marsh & Rajdeep Sengupta, 2017. "Competition and Bank Fragility," Research Working Paper RWP 17-6, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
    6. Goetz, Martin R. & Gozzi, Juan Carlos, 2022. "Financial integration and the co-movement of economic activity: Evidence from U.S. states," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    7. Ọláyínká Oyèkọ́lá, 2021. "Finance and inequality in a panel of US States," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(5), pages 2739-2795, November.
    8. Aslı Leblebicioğlu & Ariel Weinberger, 2020. "Credit and the Labour Share: Evidence from US States," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 130(630), pages 1782-1816.
    9. Martin R. Goetz & Juan Carlos Gozzi, 2020. "Financial Integration and the Co-Movement of Economic Activity: Evidence from U.S. States," International Finance Discussion Papers 1305, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    10. Chatterji, Aaron K. & Seamans, Robert C., 2012. "Entrepreneurial finance, credit cards, and race," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 182-195.
    11. Popov, Alexander & Zaharia, Sonia, 2019. "Credit market competition and the gender gap in labor force participation: Evidence from local markets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 25-59.
    12. Berger, Allen N. & El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane & Roman, Raluca A., 2022. "Geographic deregulation and banks’ cost of equity capital," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    13. Michalski, Tomasz & Ors, Evren, 2012. "(Interstate) Banking and (interstate) trade: Does real integration follow financial integration?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(1), pages 89-117.
    14. Kandilov, Ivan T. & Leblebicioğlu, Aslı & Petkova, Neviana, 2017. "Cross-border mergers and acquisitions: The importance of local credit and source country finance," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 288-318.
    15. Kandilov, Ivan T. & Leblebicioğlu, Asli & Petkova, Neviana, 2016. "The impact of banking deregulation on inbound foreign direct investment: Transaction-level evidence from the United States," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 138-159.
    16. Brown, Sarah & Gray, Daniel & Montagnoli, Alberto, 2019. "Credit supply shocks and household leverage: Evidence from the US banking deregulation," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 97-115.
    17. Cacciatore, Matteo & Ghironi, Fabio & Stebunovs, Viktors, 2015. "The domestic and international effects of interstate U.S. banking," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(2), pages 171-187.
    18. Shofiqur Rahman, 2020. "Credit supply and capital structure adjustments," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 49(4), pages 949-972, December.
    19. Berger, Allen N. & Chen, Ruiyuan (Ryan) & El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane, 2020. "Who wins and who loses from bank geographic deregulation? Analysis of financially constrained and unconstrained firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    20. Bian, Bo, 2020. "Globally Consistent Creditor Protection, Reallocation, and Productivity," LawFin Working Paper Series 6, Goethe University, Center for Advanced Studies on the Foundations of Law and Finance (LawFin).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • K11 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Property Law
    • K22 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Business and Securities Law
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups
    • O34 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital
    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy

    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:aea:aejpol:v:17:y:2025:i:4:p:192-227. 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: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    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.