Date of Award
8-2013
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Legacy Department
Economics
Committee Chair/Advisor
Hanssen, Andrew
Committee Member
Tollison , Robert
Committee Member
Hobbs , Bradley
Abstract
This paper looks at the effect of economic freedom, a cost of investment for entrepreneurial action, on the amount of firms established across states and years. My hypothesis is that economic freedom has a positive effect on the number of firms that are established in a given year. My assumption for why this is the case is because greater economic freedom implies that costs of investing in a new firm will decrease thereby increasing the incentive to create new firms. I use data from the Mercatus Institutes Freedom index and the United States Census Bureau for firm formation and economic freedom, respectively. I use data that is across states for 2002, 2008, and 2010 I find that economic freedom has a statistically significant economic effect on the number of firms established.
Recommended Citation
Cox, Cameron, "FIRM FORMATION AND ECONOMIC FREEDOM: A LOOK AT THE EFFECT OF REGULATION AND FISCAL POWER ACROSS STATES" (2013). All Theses. 1732.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/1732