Entrepreneurship and information on past failures: A natural experiment

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cahn, Christophe; Girotti, Mattia; Landier, Augustin
• 署名单位: European Central Bank; Bank of France; Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC) Paris
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-405X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2020.06.021
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 102-121
• 关键词: Entrepreneurship; Firm creation; Access to credit; bankruptcy; banks

摘要

We analyze how public information on past entrepreneurial failure affects entrepreneurs' ability to borrow and start new ventures. We exploit a policy shock from 2013 in France, which eliminated a widely used means of public reporting to banks of the identity of en-trepreneurs involved in past corporate liquidations. We find that the elimination of this flag increases failed entrepreneurs' probability of starting a new business by at least 19%. Restarters create companies that have a higher probability of default. The effect of the reform is significantly more pronounced for younger entrepreneurs, in line with banks ra-tionally using information to update beliefs on entrepreneurs' ability. (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.