Some Simple Economics of Crowdfunding

Ajay Agrawal, Christian Catalini and Avi Goldfarb

No 19133, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: It is not surprising that the financing of early-stage creative projects and ventures is typically geographically localized since these types of funding decisions are usually predicated on personal relationships and due diligence requiring face-to-face interactions in response to high levels of risk, uncertainty, and information asymmetry. So, to economists, the recent rise of crowdfunding - raising capital from many people through an online platform - which offers little opportunity for careful due diligence and involves not only friends and family but also many strangers from near and far, is initially startling. On the eve of launching equity-based crowdfunding, a new market for early-stage finance in the U.S., we provide a preliminary exploration of its underlying economics. We highlight the extent to which economic theory, in particular transaction costs, reputation, and market design, can explain the rise of non-equity crowdfunding and offer a framework for speculating on how equity-based crowdfunding may unfold. We conclude by articulating open questions related to how crowdfunding may affect social welfare and the rate and direction of innovation.

JEL-codes: D47 D82 G21 G24 L26 L86 R12 Z11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ppm
Note: PR
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (55)

Published as Some Simple Economics of Crowdfunding , Ajay Agrawal, Christian Catalini, Avi Goldfarb. in Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 14 , Lerner and Stern. 2014

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w19133.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Some Simple Economics of Crowdfunding (2014)
Chapter: Some Simple Economics of Crowdfunding (2013)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19133

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w19133

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().