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Regulating away competition: the effect of regulation on entrepreneurship and employment

Author

Listed:
  • James B. Bailey

    (Providence College)

  • Diana W. Thomas

    (Creighton University)

Abstract

Many scholars have worried that regulation deters entrepreneurship because it increases the cost of entry, reduces innovation in the regulated industry, and benefits large firms because they can overcome the costs of complying with regulations more easily than smaller firms. Using novel data on the extent of US federal regulations by industry and data on firm births and employment from the Statistics of US Businesses, we run fixed effects regressions to show that more-regulated industries experienced fewer new firm births and slower employment growth in the period 1998–2011. Large firms may even successfully lobby government officials to increase regulations to raise their smaller rivals’ costs. We also find that regulations inhibit employment growth in all firms and that large firms are less likely to exit a heavily regulated industry than small firms.

Suggested Citation

  • James B. Bailey & Diana W. Thomas, 2017. "Regulating away competition: the effect of regulation on entrepreneurship and employment," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 237-254, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:regeco:v:52:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s11149-017-9343-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s11149-017-9343-9
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Regulation; Entrepreneurship; Employment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K23 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Regulated Industries and Administrative Law
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure

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