IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v262y2026ics016517652600087x.html

Business licensing and local business dynamics: Evidence from Chicago

Author

Listed:
  • Koh, Yumi

Abstract

How does reducing regulatory complexity in business licensing affect local business dynamics? We study a 2013 licensing reform in Chicago that simplified a previously complex regime. Using administrative licensing records from 2011–2017, we show that the reform reduced the number of licenses held per establishment and increased new business entry. The entry response was driven primarily by new entrants rather than expansion by incumbents. Although the reform was implemented uniformly across the city, its effects varied locally and depended on pre-reform business composition. These findings suggest that administrative consolidation can influence market contestability and reshape local business dynamics.

Suggested Citation

  • Koh, Yumi, 2026. "Business licensing and local business dynamics: Evidence from Chicago," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:262:y:2026:i:c:s016517652600087x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2026.112893
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016517652600087X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2026.112893?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.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis

    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:eee:ecolet:v:262:y:2026:i:c:s016517652600087x. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    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.