IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/atv/wpaper/2008.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Protecting Investors in Equity Crowdfunding: An Empirical Analysis of the Small Investor Protection Act

Author

Listed:
  • Maximilian Goethner
  • Lars Hornuf
  • Tobias Regner

Abstract

During the past decade, equity crowdfunding (ECF) has emerged as an alternative funding channel for startup firms. In Germany, the Small Investor Protection Act became binding in July 2015, with the legislative goal to protect investors engaging in this new asset class. Since then, investors pledging more than 1,000 EUR now must self-report their income and wealth. Investing more than 10,000 EUR in a single ECF issuer is only possible through a corporate entity. We examine how the Small Investor Protection Act has affected investor behavior at Companisto, Germany's largest ECF portal for startup firms. The results show that after the new law became binding, sophisticated investors invest less on average while casual investors invest more. Moreover, the signaling capacity of large investments has disappeared.

Suggested Citation

  • Maximilian Goethner & Lars Hornuf & Tobias Regner, 2020. "Protecting Investors in Equity Crowdfunding: An Empirical Analysis of the Small Investor Protection Act," Bremen Papers on Economics & Innovation 2008, University of Bremen, Faculty of Business Studies and Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:atv:wpaper:2008
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.26092/elib/93
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://media.suub.uni-bremen.de/bitstream/elib/4308/4/2008%20Protecting%20Investors%20in%20Equity%20Crowdfunding.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/https://doi.org/10.26092/elib/93?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. Herzenstein, Michal & Dholakia, Utpal M. & Andrews, Rick L., 2011. "Strategic Herding Behavior in Peer-to-Peer Loan Auctions," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 27-36.
    2. John Armour & Douglas Cumming, 2008. "Bankruptcy Law and Entrepreneurship," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 10(2), pages 303-350.
    3. Johannes Wallmeroth, 2019. "Investor behavior in equity crowdfunding," Venture Capital, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2-3), pages 273-300, July.
    4. Matthew Rabin & Ted O'Donoghue, 1999. "Doing It Now or Later," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(1), pages 103-124, March.
    5. Becht, Marco & Mayer, Colin & Wagner, Hannes F., 2008. "Where do firms incorporate? Deregulation and the cost of entry," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 241-256, June.
    6. La Porta, Rafael & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1997. "Legal Determinants of External Finance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(3), pages 1131-1150, July.
    7. Hornuf, Lars & Schwienbacher, Armin, 2018. "Market mechanisms and funding dynamics in equity crowdfunding," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 556-574.
    8. Johannes Wallmeroth, 2019. "Investor behavior in equity crowdfunding," Post-Print hal-02420879, HAL.
    9. Jörn Block & Lars Hornuf & Alexandra Moritz, 2018. "Which updates during an equity crowdfunding campaign increase crowd participation?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 3-27, January.
    10. Cumming, Douglas J. & Johan, Sofia A. & Zhang, Yelin, 2019. "The role of due diligence in crowdfunding platforms," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    11. Klapper, Leora & Laeven, Luc & Rajan, Raghuram, 2006. "Entry regulation as a barrier to entrepreneurship," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(3), pages 591-629, December.
    12. Tamara Dinev & Paul Hart, 2006. "An Extended Privacy Calculus Model for E-Commerce Transactions," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 17(1), pages 61-80, March.
    13. John Armour & Douglas Cumming, 2006. "The legislative road to Silicon Valley," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 58(4), pages 596-635, October.
    14. Glenn Milligan, 1980. "An examination of the effect of six types of error perturbation on fifteen clustering algorithms," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 45(3), pages 325-342, September.
    15. Simon Kleinert & Christine Volkmann, 2019. "Equity crowdfunding and the role of investor discussion boards," Venture Capital, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(4), pages 327-352, October.
    16. Nguyen, Thang & Cox, Joe & Rich, Judy, 2019. "Invest or regret? An empirical investigation into funding dynamics during the final days of equity crowdfunding campaigns," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 784-803.
    17. Cumming, Douglas & Meoli, Michele & Vismara, Silvio, 2019. "Investors’ choices between cash and voting rights: Evidence from dual-class equity crowdfunding," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(8), pages 1-1.
    18. Johannes Wallmeroth, 2019. "Investor behavior in equity crowdfunding," Post-Print hal-02312242, HAL.
    19. Sims, Christopher A., 2003. "Implications of rational inattention," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 665-690, April.
    20. Miwako Nitani & Allan Riding & Beichuan He, 2019. "On equity crowdfunding: investor rationality and success factors," Venture Capital, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2-3), pages 243-272, July.
    21. Jörg Rocholl & Dmitry Chervyakov, 2019. "How to make crowdfunding work in Europe," Bruegel Policy Contributions 30052, Bruegel.
    22. Scharfstein, David S & Stein, Jeremy C, 1990. "Herd Behavior and Investment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(3), pages 465-479, June.
    23. Glenn Milligan & Martha Cooper, 1985. "An examination of procedures for determining the number of clusters in a data set," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 50(2), pages 159-179, June.
    24. Alice Rossi & Silvio Vismara, 2018. "What do crowdfunding platforms do? A comparison between investment-based platforms in Europe," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 8(1), pages 93-118, March.
    25. Joern H. Block & Massimo G. Colombo & Douglas J. Cumming & Silvio Vismara, 2018. "New players in entrepreneurial finance and why they are there," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 239-250, February.
    26. Lars Hornuf & Matthias Neuenkirch, 2017. "Pricing shares in equity crowdfunding," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 795-811, April.
    27. Silvio Vismara, 2018. "Information Cascades among Investors in Equity Crowdfunding," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 42(3), pages 467-497, May.
    28. Fan, Wei & White, Michelle J, 2003. "Personal Bankruptcy and the Level of Entrepreneurial Activity," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 46(2), pages 543-567, October.
    29. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    30. Lars Hornuf & Armin Schwienbacher, 2017. "Should securities regulation promote equity crowdfunding?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 579-593, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Goethner, Maximilian & Hornuf, Lars & Regner, Tobias, 2021. "Protecting investors in equity crowdfunding: An empirical analysis of the small investor protection act," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    2. Lars Hornuf & Matthias Schmitt & Eliza Stenzhorn, 2022. "The local bias in equity crowdfunding: Behavioral anomaly or rational preference?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 693-733, August.
    3. Maximilian Goethner & Sebastian Luettig & Tobias Regner, 2021. "Crowdinvesting in entrepreneurial projects: disentangling patterns of investor behavior," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 905-926, August.
    4. Coakley, Jerry & Lazos, Aristogenis & Liñares-Zegarra, José M., 2022. "Seasoned equity crowdfunded offerings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    5. Borello, Giuliana & De Crescenzo, Veronica & Pichler, Flavio, 2019. "Factors for success in European crowdinvesting," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    6. Sandra Correia & Miguel Sousa & Elísio Brandão, 2024. "What do we know about the choices of entrepreneurs before the equity crowdfunding campaign?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 63(4), pages 1471-1501, December.
    7. Mataigne, Virginie & Meoli, Michele & Vanacker, Tom & Vismara, Silvio, 2025. "False signaling by platform team members and post-campaign venture outcomes: Evidence from an equity crowdfunding platform," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 40(1).
    8. Lukkarinen, Anna & Schwienbacher, Armin, 2023. "Secondary market listings in equity crowdfunding: The missing link?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(1).
    9. Nguyen, Thang & Cox, Joe & Rich, Judy, 2019. "Invest or regret? An empirical investigation into funding dynamics during the final days of equity crowdfunding campaigns," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 784-803.
    10. Cristina Martínez-Gómez & Francisca Jiménez-Jiménez & M. Virtudes Alba-Fernández, 2020. "Determinants of Overfunding in Equity Crowdfunding: An Empirical Study in the UK and Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-29, December.
    11. Vincenzo Butticè & Silvio Vismara, 2022. "Inclusive digital finance: the industry of equity crowdfunding," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 1224-1241, August.
    12. Silvio Vismara, 2022. "Expanding corporate finance perspectives to equity crowdfunding," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 47(6), pages 1629-1639, December.
    13. Bollaert, Helen & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Schwienbacher, Armin, 2021. "Fintech and access to finance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    14. Marco Bade & Martin Walther, 2021. "Local preferences and the allocation of attention in equity-based crowdfunding," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(8), pages 2501-2533, November.
    15. Joern H. Block & Alexander Groh & Lars Hornuf & Tom Vanacker & Silvio Vismara, 2021. "The entrepreneurial finance markets of the future: a comparison of crowdfunding and initial coin offerings," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 865-882, August.
    16. Joern H. Block & Alexander Groh & Lars Hornuf & Tom Vanacker & Silvio Vismara, 0. "The entrepreneurial finance markets of the future: a comparison of crowdfunding and initial coin offerings," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-18.
    17. Michael E. Cummings & Hans Rawhouser & Silvio Vismara & Erin L. Hamilton, 2020. "An equity crowdfunding research agenda: evidence from stakeholder participation in the rulemaking process," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 54(4), pages 907-932, April.
    18. Camilla Civardi & Andrea Moro & Joakim Winborg, 2024. "“All that glitters is not gold!”: The (Unexplored) Determinants of Equity Crowdfunding," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 63(1), pages 299-324, June.
    19. Aleksandrina Ralcheva & Peter Roosenboom, 2020. "Forecasting success in equity crowdfunding," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 39-56, June.
    20. Douglas J. Cumming & Lars Hornuf, 2020. "Marketplace Lending of SMEs," CESifo Working Paper Series 8100, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Equity crowdfunding; Crowdinvesting; Investor protection;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • K22 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Business and Securities Law
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship

    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:atv:wpaper:2008. 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: Matheus Eduardo Leusin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iibrede.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.