IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/yaleeg/206854.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Choice of Enterprise Form: Spain, 1886-1936

Author

Listed:
  • Guinnane, Timothy
  • Martinez Rodriguez, Susana

Abstract

Economists have long neglected study of an important contractual decision, a firm’s choice of legal form. Enterprise form shapes the relations among a firm’s owners as well as many features of a firm’s interactions with the rest of the economy. Using unusual firm-level data on Spain 1886-1936, we estimate nested logit models of the determinants of enterprise form choice. In 1919, Spain introduced a new enterprise form that compromised between partnerships and corporations, and displaced larger partnerships and smaller corporations. This Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada was especially important for small and median-sized enterprises whose owners were not related.

Suggested Citation

  • Guinnane, Timothy & Martinez Rodriguez, Susana, 2015. "Choice of Enterprise Form: Spain, 1886-1936," Center Discussion Papers 206854, Yale University, Economic Growth Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:yaleeg:206854
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.206854
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/206854/files/cdp1049.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.206854?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Guinnane, Timothy & Harris, Ron & Lamoreaux, Naomi R. & Rosenthal, Jean-Laurent, 2007. "Putting the Corporation in its Place," Enterprise & Society, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 687-729, September.
    2. 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.
    3. Hart, Oliver & Moore, John, 1990. "Property Rights and the Nature of the Firm," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(6), pages 1119-1158, December.
    4. Mehrotra, Vikas & Morck, Randall, 2013. "Entrepreneurship and the Family Firm," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 649-681, Elsevier.
    5. Train,Kenneth E., 2009. "Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521766555, September.
    6. Spulber,Daniel F., 2009. "The Theory of the Firm," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521736602, September.
    7. Keane, Michael P, 1992. "A Note on Identification in the Multinomial Probit Model," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 10(2), pages 193-200, April.
    8. Naomi R. Lamoreaux & John Joseph Wallis, 2017. "Organizations, Civil Society, and the Roots of Development," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number lamo14-1.
    9. Hilt, Eric & O'Banion, Katharine, 2009. "The Limited Partnership in New York, 1822–1858: Partnerships Without Kinship," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 69(3), pages 615-645, September.
    10. Nafziger, E Wayne, 1969. "The Effect of the Nigerian Extended Family on Entrepreneurial Activity," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(1), pages 25-33, Part I Oc.
    11. Marianne Bertrand & Antoinette Schoar, 2006. "The Role of Family in Family Firms," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(2), pages 73-96, Spring.
    12. Naomi R. Lamoreaux, 2016. "Corporate governance and the expansion of the democratic franchise: beyond cross-country regressions," Scandinavian Economic History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 64(2), pages 103-121, June.
    13. Eric Hilt & Katharine E. O'Banion, 2008. "The Limited Partnership in New York, 1822-1853: Partnerships without Kinship," NBER Working Papers 14412, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Aldo Musacchio & John D. Turner, 2013. "Does the law and finance hypothesis pass the test of history?," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(4), pages 524-542, June.
    15. Naomi R. Lamoreaux, 2005. "Legal Regime and Contractual Flexibility: A Comparison of Business's Organizational Choices in France and the United States during the Era of Industrialization," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 7(1), pages 28-61.
    16. Eric Hilt, 2016. "Corporation Law and the Shift toward Open Access in the Antebellum United States," NBER Chapters, in: Organizations, Civil Society, and the Roots of Development, pages 147-177, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Nicholas, Tom, 2015. "The Organization of Enterprise in Japan," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 75(2), pages 333-363, June.
    18. Alan D. Morrison & William J. Wilhelm, 2008. "The Demise of Investment Banking Partnerships: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(1), pages 311-350, February.
    19. G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), 2013. "Handbook of the Economics of Finance," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, Elsevier, volume 2, number 2-b.
    20. G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), 2013. "Handbook of the Economics of Finance," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, Elsevier, volume 2, number 2-a.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Burger, Christoph & Weinmann, Jens, 2015. "Innovation performance of the US American and European electricity supply industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 351-359.
    2. Guinnane, Timothy W. & Schneebacher, Jakob, 2020. "Enterprise form: Theory and history," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    3. Cristina Fernández & Leonardo Villar & Nicolás Gómez, 2017. "Taxonomía de la informalidad en América Latina," Coyuntura Económica, Fedesarrollo, vol. 47(1 y 2), pages 137-167, December.
    4. Zanette, Maria Carolina & Scaraboto, Daiane, 2019. "“To Spanx or not to Spanx”: How objects that carry contradictory institutional logics trigger identity conflict for consumers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 443-453.

    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. Guinnane, Timothy W. & Schneebacher, Jakob, 2020. "Enterprise form: Theory and history," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    2. Timothy Guinnane & Jakob Schneebacher, 2018. "Capital Structure and the Choice of Enterprise Form: theory and history," Working Papers 1061, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    3. Rochat, Jean, 2016. "Change for continuity: the making of the société anonyme in 19th century france," Working Papers unige:90196, University of Geneva, Paul Bairoch Institute of Economic History.
    4. Eric Hilt, 2014. "History of American Corporate Governance: Law, Institutions, and Politics," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 1-21, December.
    5. Hannah, Leslie & Kasuya, Makoto, 2015. "Twentieth century enterprise forms: Japan in comparative perspective," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 64489, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Ramana Nanda & William R. Kerr, 2015. "Financing Innovation," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 7(1), pages 445-462, December.
    7. Christoph Bertsch & Mike Mariathasan, 2021. "Optimal bank leverage and recapitalization in crowded markets," BIS Working Papers 923, Bank for International Settlements.
    8. Jun-Koo Kang & Jungmin Kim, 2020. "Do Family Firms Invest More than Nonfamily Firms in Employee-Friendly Policies?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(3), pages 1300-1324, March.
    9. Anne Amar-Sabbah & Pierre Batteau, 2018. "CEO Compensation: Agency Theory is Irrelevant but not the Neoclassical Game-Theoretic Framework," Working Papers halshs-01818600, HAL.
    10. Ramana Nanda & William R. Kerr, 2015. "Financing Innovation," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 7(1), pages 445-462, December.
    11. Masayuki Morikawa, 2014. "What Types of Companies Have Female and Foreign Directors?," AJRC Working Papers 1404, Australia-Japan Research Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    12. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2015_028 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Ran Abramitzky & Zephyr Frank & Aprajit Mahajan, 2009. "Inside the Black Box: Partnerships in Rio de Janeiro, 1870-1891," Discussion Papers 08-044, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    14. repec:bof:bofrdp:urn:nbn:fi:bof-201512141480 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. João Pinto & Mário Coutinho dos Santos, 2014. "Corporate Financing Choices after the 2007-2008 Financial Crisis," Working Papers de Economia (Economics Working Papers) 03, Católica Porto Business School, Universidade Católica Portuguesa.
    16. Naomi R. Lamoreaux, 2014. "Revisiting American Exceptionalism: Democracy and the Regulation of Corporate Governance in Nineteenth-Century Pennsylvania," NBER Working Papers 20231, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Morikawa, Masayuki, 2016. "What types of companies have female directors? Evidence from Japan," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 37, pages 1-7.
    18. repec:zbw:bofrdp:urn:nbn:fi:bof-201512141480 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. MORIKAWA Masayuki, 2014. "What Types of Company Have Female and Foreign Directors?," Discussion papers 14032, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    20. Becker, Gideon, 2014. "The portfolio structure of German households: A multinomial fractional response approach with unobserved heterogeneity," University of Tübingen Working Papers in Business and Economics 74, University of Tuebingen, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, School of Business and Economics.
    21. Leye Li & Louise Yi Lu & Dongyue Wang, 2022. "External labour market competitions and stock price crash risk: evidence from exposures to competitor CEOs’ award‐winning events," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(S1), pages 1421-1460, April.
    22. Ichiro Iwasaki & Satoshi Mizobata & Alexander Muravyev, 2018. "Ownership dynamics and firm performance in an emerging economy: a meta-analysis of the Russian literature," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(3), pages 290-333, May.
    23. Elias Albagli & Christian Hellwig & Aleh Tsyvinski, 2023. "Imperfect Financial Markets and Investment Inefficiencies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 113(9), pages 2323-2354, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financial Economics; Industrial Organization; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; International Development;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K20 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - General
    • N43 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N44 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Europe: 1913-

    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:ags:yaleeg:206854. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/egyalus.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.