IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/germec/v10y2009i1p71-90.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Soft Budget Constraint Explanation for the Venture Capital Cycle

Author

Listed:
  • Georg Gebhardt

Abstract

. We explore why venture capital funds limit the amount of capital they raise and do not reinvest the proceeds. This structure is puzzling because it leads to a succession of several funds financing each new venture, which multiplies the well‐known agency problems. We argue that an inside investor cannot provide a hard budget constraint while a less informed outsider can. Therefore, the venture capitalist delegates the continuation decision to the outsider by ex ante restricting the amount of capital he has under management. The soft budget constraint problem becomes the more important the higher the entrepreneur's private benefits are and the higher the probability of failure of a project is.

Suggested Citation

  • Georg Gebhardt, 2009. "A Soft Budget Constraint Explanation for the Venture Capital Cycle," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 10(1), pages 71-90, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:germec:v:10:y:2009:i:1:p:71-90
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0475.2008.00442.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0475.2008.00442.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-0475.2008.00442.x?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. M. Dewatripont & E. Maskin, 1995. "Credit and Efficiency in Centralized and Decentralized Economies," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 62(4), pages 541-555.
    2. Klaus M. Schmidt, 2003. "Convertible Securities and Venture Capital Finance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(3), pages 1139-1166, June.
    3. Dirk Bergemann & Ulrigh Hege, 2005. "The Financing of Innovation: Learning and Stopping," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 36(4), pages 719-752, Winter.
    4. Gompers, Paul & Lerner, Josh, 1996. "The Use of Covenants: An Empirical Analysis of Venture Partnership Agreements," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(2), pages 463-498, October.
    5. Kornai, J, 1979. "Resource-Constrained versus Demand-Constrained Systems," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(4), pages 801-819, July.
    6. Darwin V. Neher, 1999. "Staged Financing: An Agency Perspective," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 66(2), pages 255-274.
    7. Gompers, Paul & Lerner, Josh, 1999. "An analysis of compensation in the U.S. venture capital partnership," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 3-44, January.
    8. Eric S. Maskin, 1999. "Recent Theoretical Work on the Soft Budget Constraint," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 421-425, May.
    9. Schmidt, Klaus M, 1996. "The Costs and Benefits of Privatization: An Incomplete Contracts Approach," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 1-24, April.
    10. Francesca Cornelli & Oved Yosha, 2003. "Stage Financing and the Role of Convertible Securities," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(1), pages 1-32.
    11. Gompers, Paul A, 1995. "Optimal Investment, Monitoring, and the Staging of Venture Capital," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(5), pages 1461-1489, December.
    12. Schmidt, Klaus M., 1996. "Incomplete contracts and privatization," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(3-5), pages 569-579, April.
    13. Thomas Hellmann, 1998. "The Allocation of Control Rights in Venture Capital Contracts," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 29(1), pages 57-76, Spring.
    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. János Kornai, 2014. "The soft budget constraint," Acta Oeconomica, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 64(supplemen), pages 25-79, November.
    2. Wu, Ting & Yang, Shuwang & Tan, Jingjing, 2020. "Impacts of government R&D subsidies on venture capital and renewable energy investment -- an empirical study in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    3. Ma, Yu & Zhang, Tingting & Qian, Wenyu & Wei, Danqi, 2022. "Financial development, demographic changes, and the growth of the non-hydro renewable energy Industry—An empirical test based on R&D and financing costs," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 217-229.
    4. Izabela Jonek-Kowalska, 2022. "Assessing the energy security of European countries in the resource and economic context," Oeconomia Copernicana, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 13(2), pages 301-334, June.

    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. Gebhardt, Georg, 2006. "A Soft Budget Constraint Explanation for the Venture Capital Cycle," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 173, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.
    2. Rin, Marco Da & Hellmann, Thomas & Puri, Manju, 2013. "A Survey of Venture Capital Research," 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 573-648, Elsevier.
    3. Kanniainen, Vesa & Keuschnigg, Christian, 2004. "Start-up investment with scarce venture capital support," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(8), pages 1935-1959, August.
    4. Andrew Metrick & Ayako Yasuda, 2011. "Venture Capital and Other Private Equity: a Survey," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 17(4), pages 619-654, September.
    5. Tereza Tykvová, 2007. "What Do Economists Tell Us About Venture Capital Contracts?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(1), pages 65-89, February.
    6. Georg Gebhardt & Klaus M. Schmidt, 2002. "Der Markt für Venture Capital: Anreizprobleme, Governance Strukturen und staatliche Interventionen," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 3(3), pages 235-255, August.
    7. Alperovych, Yan & Hübner, Georges & Lobet, Fabrice, 2015. "How does governmental versus private venture capital backing affect a firm's efficiency? Evidence from Belgium," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 508-525.
    8. Bhanot, Karan & Kadapakkam, Palani-Rajan, 2022. "Pay for performance, partnership success, and the internal organization of venture capital firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    9. Georg Gebhardt, 2000. "Innovation and Venture Capital," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 1404, Econometric Society.
    10. Hall, Bronwyn H. & Lerner, Josh, 2010. "The Financing of R&D and Innovation," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 609-639, Elsevier.
    11. Bottazzi, Laura & Da Rin, Marco & Hellmann, Thomas, 2008. "Who are the active investors?: Evidence from venture capital," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(3), pages 488-512, September.
    12. Sabrina T. Howell, 2017. "Reducing Information Frictions in Venture Capital: The Role of New Venture Competitions," NBER Working Papers 23874, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. repec:bla:germec:v:10:y:2009:i::p:71-90 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Jens Burchardt & Ulrich Hommel & Dzidziso Samuel Kamuriwo & Carolina Billitteri, 2016. "Venture Capital Contracting in Theory and Practice: Implications for Entrepreneurship Research," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(1), pages 25-48, January.
    15. Laura Bottazzi & Marco Da Rin & Thomas Hellmann, 2004. "Active Financial Intermediation: Evidence on the Role of Organizational Specialization and Human Capital," Working Papers 266, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
    16. Schertler, Andrea, 2000. "Venture Capital Contracts: A Survey of the Recent Literature," Kiel Working Papers 1017, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    17. Casamatta, Catherine & Haritchabalet, Carole, 2007. "Experience, screening and syndication in venture capital investments," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 368-398, July.
    18. Tennert, Julius & Lambert, Marie & Burghof, Hans-Peter, 2017. "Moral hazard in VC finance: More expensive than you thought," Hohenheim Discussion Papers in Business, Economics and Social Sciences 02-2017, University of Hohenheim, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences.
    19. Sarah Armitage & Noël Bakhtian & Adam Jaffe, 2024. "Innovation Market Failures and the Design of New Climate Policy Instruments," Environmental and Energy Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(1), pages 4-48.
    20. Emmanuelle Auriol & Pierre M. Picard, 2009. "Government Outsourcing: Public Contracting with Private Monopoly," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(540), pages 1464-1493, October.
    21. Emmanuelle Auriol & Pierre M. Picard, 2008. "Infrastructure and Public Utilities Privatization in Developing Countries," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 23(1), pages 77-100, November.

    More about this item

    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:bla:germec:v:10:y:2009:i:1:p:71-90. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfsocea.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.