捐赠型众筹平台对创业影响的多国准自然实验研究

A Cross-Country Quasi Natural Experiment:Impact of Donation-Based Crowdfunding Platforms on Entrepreneurship

互联网众筹平台在全球迅速兴起,不以营利为目的的捐赠型众筹平台受到各国的重视和青睐,其自身公益属性被认为更有利于促进创业活动。但捐赠型众筹平台对一个国家创业产生的具体影响如何,尚缺乏明确的论证。本文采用多国比较方法,探讨捐赠型众筹平台的引入对一国国民创业感知的影响,并结合各国的经济发展水平,分析影响程度的差别。以全球最大的捐赠型众筹平台Kiva和世界银行等机构关于93个国家的多年数据为基础,通过准自然实验和双重差分模型,发现捐赠型众筹平台进入一个国家会增加该国国民的创业机会感知,而国家经济发展水平对该效果具有正向调节作用。研究结论为基于互联网的小额贷款制度设计对创业的作用机制提供了理论阐述与证据支撑,也为未来各国公益性互联网小额贷款商业模式提供了决策依据。

As a particular type of crowdfunding platforms emerge in the global market,donation-based crowdfunding platform is expected to greatly stimulate entrepreneurship due to its pro-social characteristics.Given this high expectation,whether and how donation-based crowdfunding platforms increase entrepreneurship in a country remains unclear.It examined this research question in the context of multiple countries.In particular,based on the largest donation-based crowdfunding platform(Kiva)and secondary data collected from different sources,it conducted a difference-in-difference analysis on 93 countries.The results show that the introduction of Kiva into a country does increase the perceived opportunity of entrepreneurship in the focal country,and the positive effect is stronger in developed countries than in developing countries.It contributes to the literature on microcredit not only by elaborating the mechanisms how online microcredit leads to increased entrepreneurship but also by addressing the potential bias due to a single-country context in prior literature.The results also provide practical implications to countries that tend to leverage crowdfunding platforms to enhance entrepreneurship and innovation.