Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-1-2019

Abstract

There is a strong belief that Republicans are more pro-business than Democrats. In this paper, we investigate the causal impact of partisan allegiance of governors (Republican or Democratic) on entrepreneurial activity by exploiting random variation in close gubernatorial elections in 50 states over the last three decades in a regression discontinuity design. We find that Republican governors are no different than Democratic governors in their effects on entrepreneurship. Our findings are robust to several sensitivity checks.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Canadian Journal of Economics

First Page

33

Last Page

57

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