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Saul Estrin.

Saul Estrin

Associate

Expertise: economics of entrepreneurship, foreign direct investment, privatization

Telephone:
020 7955 6629
Email:
s.estrin@lse.ac.uk
Room:
CKK 4.32
Links:
CEP Growth

Biography

Professor Saul Estrin is an Emeritus Professor of Managerial Economics and Strategy in the Department of Management at LSE. His areas of research include labour economics, economic development and entrepreneurship. He was formerly Adecco Professor of Business and Society at London Business School where he was also Deputy Dean (Faculty and Research) for six years and the Director of the Centre for New and Emerging Markets, which analyses private sector development in emerging markets. Saul has published more than one hundred scholarly articles and books. His books include Privatisation in Central and Eastern Europe; Foreign Direct Investment into Transition Economies; and Investment Strategies in Emerging Markets. He has also published numerous papers in scholarly journals including Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, European Economic Review, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Industrial Economics and Journal of Comparative Economics.

Current areas of research include:

  • Entrepreneurship and employment creation
  • Entrepreneurial activity, entrepreneurship types and institutions
  • New sources of finance for entrepreneurial companies: Crowdfunding

Publications

Journal article
Realizing Expectations? High-impact Entrepreneurship Across Countries

Comparative international entrepreneurship research has often used measures of high-growth expectations entrepreneurship to proxy for the construct of high-impact entrepreneurship. We revisit this practice by assessing t... Read more...

Saul Estrin and Johannes Kleinhempel

01 February 2025

CEP discussion papers
New venture creation: Innovativeness, speed-to-breakeven and revenue tradeoffs

We present a Schumpeterian growth model with new venture creation, under uncertainty, which explains the tradeoff between speed-to-breakeven, revenue-at-breakeven and relates this to the level of innovation. We then expl... Read more...

Saul Estrin, Andrea Herrmann, Moren Levesque, Tomasz Mickiewicz and Mark Sanders

15 November 2024

Journal article
Agglomeration costs limit sustainable innovation in cities in developing economies

Theory and evidence from developed economies suggests that innovation activities benefit from agglomeration economies associated with urban economic density. However, despite the fact that eighteen of the world’s top twe... Read more...

Saul Estrin, Yuan Hu, Daniel Shapiro and Peng Zhang

14 November 2024

Blog
Informal entrepreneurs create jobs. Here's how to support them

Informal firms provide between 60 and 90 per cent of non-agricultural employment in emerging markets. This type of business exists everywhere, but it's in developing countries that the highest rates of informality and in... Read more...

Saul Estrin, Maribel Guerrero and Tomasz Mickiewicz

24 October 2024

Journal article
Does it matter who owns firms? Evidence on the impact of supermajority control on private firms in Europe

We explore how the type of owner affects private enterprise investment decisions in Europe. In contrast to the literature, we analyze firms with concentrated (>95%) ownership stakes to reduce the potential that agency pr... Read more...

Saul Estrin, Jan Hanousek and Anastasiya Shamshur

01 October 2024

Journal article
A framework for investigating new firm entry: The (limited) overlap between informal-formal and necessity-opportunity entrepreneurship

We analyse entrepreneurial entry along the dimensions of informal-formal and necessity-opportunity entrepreneurship, distinguishing between them yet considering them jointly. While the dominant view in the literature con... Read more...

Saul Estrin, Maribel Guerrero and Tomasz Mickiewicz

01 July 2024

Journal article
Access to digital finance: Equity crowdfunding across countries and platforms

Financing entrepreneurship spurs innovation and economic growth. Digital financial platforms that crowdfund equity for entrepreneurs have emerged globally, yet they remain poorly understood. We model equity crowdfunding ... Read more...

Saul Estrin, Susanna Khavul, Alexander S Kritikos and Jonas Loher

08 January 2024

Journal article
Integrating host-country political heterogeneity into MNE-state bargaining: insights from international political economy

The international business (IB) literature has emphasised the heterogeneity of firm strategies in shaping MNE-state bargaining, but largely ignored the heterogeneity of states. In contrast, the international political ec... Read more...

Sumon Kumar Bhaumik, Saul Estrin and Rajneesh Narula

04 October 2023

Journal article
Political connections, business groups and innovation in Asia

It is acknowledged that Asia’s remarkable economic achievements of the past 50 years build on institutional arrangements very different from the West, including the central role of business groups (BGs) as an organisatio... Read more...

Simon Commander, Thamashi De Silva and Saul Estrin

05 September 2023

Blog
Why business groups (think Samsung or Tata Group) have an export advantage in emerging markets

With their superior access to capital, knowledge and labour, business groups offer many advantages to their affiliated firms. Daniel Shapiro, Saul Estrin, Michael Carney and Zhixiang (Steven) Liang write that these advan... Read more...

Michael Carney, Saul Estrin, Zhixiang Liang and Daniel Shapiro

18 August 2023

Journal article - forthcoming
Business Groups and Export Performance: The Role of Coordination Failures and Institutional Configurations

We explore the nature of business groups (BGs) and their affiliates in emerging markets through the lens of the coordination failures associated with economic development. We propose that BGs develop distinct economic an... Read more...

Michael Carney, Saul Estrin, Zhixiang Liang and Daniel Shapiro

04 July 2023

Blog
Why it's so difficult for companies to leave Russia

After the start of Russia's war on Ukraine, many multinational companies have announced their intention to leave Russia. Despite the pressure from numerous stakeholders, including Western governments, few companies have ... Read more...

Saul Estrin and Klaus E. Meyer

28 March 2023

Blog
Tangible or intangible investment, that is the question: Owner type and investment of private firms

Family business owners are often said to be risk averse, while corporate and institutional owners are less so. Saul Estrin, Jan Hanousek and Anastasiya Shamshur analyse how investment decisions vary across ownership type... Read more...

Saul Estrin, Jan Hanousek and Anastasiya Shamshur

14 March 2023

Blog
Asia: the Power of Connections and their Consequences

In our recent book, "The Connections World: The Future of Asia", published by Cambridge University Press in October 2022, we argue that mutually beneficial links between dynastic business houses and political elites have... Read more...

Simon Commander and Saul Estrin

25 November 2022

Blog
Asia's Development Model Is Now Jeopardizing Its Future Economic Growth

Asia is facing an economic watershed moment. Turning the corner will require rethinking the role of its dominant, state-supported business groups.... Read more...

Simon Commander and Saul Estrin

16 November 2022

Blog
To become a world leader in innovation, China needs to loosen the economic reins

In a push for more tech breakthroughs, China is ramping up state spending on research and development. But without creating space for private sector innovation, China is unlikely to achieve the kind of results it wants.... Read more...

Simon Commander and Saul Estrin

10 November 2022

Blog
What lies behind Sri Lanka's collapse?

Corruption, the preferential treatment of connections, dependence on debt finance, and explosive borrowing from China have combined to push Sri Lanka into economic collapse. Political instability has only prolonged the c... Read more...

Simon Commander, Thamashi De Silva and Saul Estrin

19 July 2022

Blog
Political systems affect innovation

Innovation drives economic growth, however data indicates innovative capability differs across economies. Simon Commander, Saul Estrin and Thamashi De Silva suggest democracy is associated with more innovation overall, t... Read more...

Simon Commander, Thamashi De Silva and Saul Estrin

05 April 2022

Blog
Where are business angels from?

Business angels, those who invest in entrepreneurial ventures at a very early stage, play a key role for new business development, which can help improve a country's productivity. But where are business angels from? Fei... Read more...

Saul Estrin, Tomasz Mickiewicz and Fei Qin

09 December 2021

Journal article
Introduction to symposium on the impact of employee influence

The three papers contained in this Symposium are the final products of a lengthy and fruitful research Odyssey. In retrospect, uncharacteristic almost to the point of surreal, the new incoming, post-Brexit referendum, Br... Read more...

Saul Estrin

01 December 2021

Journal article
Soft and hard information in equity crowdfunding: network effects in the digitalization of entrepreneurial finance

As a digital financial innovation, equity crowdfunding (ECF) allows investors to exploit the complementarity of information provision and network effects in a reduced transaction cost environment. We build on the underly... Read more...

Saul Estrin, Susanna Khavul and M Wright

01 August 2021

Journal article
Homophily and peer influence in early-stage new venture informal investment

Abstract: Conceptualising early-stage new venture informal investors as co-entrepreneurs whose actions are socially embedded, we examine the role of social influence and how it interplays with entrepreneurial experience ... Read more...

Saul Estrin, Tomasz Mickiewicz and Fei Qin

01 August 2021

Journal article
Multinationals, innovation, and institutional context: IPR protection and distance effects

We characterize the knowledge production process whereby the inventive capabilities of the firm generate innovation output in highly inventive multinational enterprises (MNEs). We explore the sensitivity of this relation... Read more...

Randolph Bruno, Riccardo Crescenzi, Saul Estrin and Sergio Petralia

19 July 2021

Journal article
The Effect on Foreign Direct Investment of Membership in the European Union

This article explores the impact of EU membership on foreign direct investment (FDI). It analyses empirically how the effects of such deep integration differ from other forms and investigates what drives these effects. U... Read more...

Randolph Bruno, Nauro Campos and Saul Estrin

01 July 2021

Journal article
The evolution and adoption of equity crowdfunding: entrepreneur and investor entry into a new market

Equity crowdfunding (ECF) offers entrepreneurs an online social media marketplace where they can access numerous potential investors who, in exchange for an ownership stake, may supply them with finance. In this paper, w... Read more...

Saul Estrin, Daniel Gozman and Susanna Khavul

01 August 2018

Journal article
Entrepreneurship, institutional economics, and economic growth: an ecosystem perspective

We analyze conceptually and in an empirical counterpart the relationship between economic growth, factor inputs, institutions, and entrepreneurship. In particular, we investigate whether entrepreneurship and institutions... Read more...

Zoltan J. Acs, Saul Estrin, Tomasz Mickiewicz and Laszlo Szerb

01 August 2018

Journal article
Emerging Economy MNEs: How does home country munificence matter?

Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) from emerging economies (EEs) are establishing operations in advanced economies (AEs), apparently departing from traditional models of internationalization. We explore an under-explored d... Read more...

Saul Estrin, Klaus E. Meyer and Adeline Pelletier

01 March 2018

CEP discussion papers
Economic integration, foreign investment and international trade: the effects of membership of the European Union

This paper investigates the importance of economic integration in simultaneously fostering foreign direct investment (FDI) and international trade. These have rarely been analyzed jointly using contemporary econometric m... Read more...

Randolph Bruno, Nauro Campos, Saul Estrin and Meng Tian

29 November 2017

CEP discussion papers
Equity crowdfunding and early stage entrepreneurial finance: damaging or disruptive?

Equity crowdfunding (ECF) offers founders of new ventures an online social media marketplace where they can access a large number of investors who, in exchange for an ownership stake, provide finance for business opportu... Read more...

Saul Estrin, Daniel Gozman and Susanna Khavul

21 September 2017

Journal article
Prospect theory and the effects of bankruptcy laws on entrepreneurial aspirations

We apply prospect theory to explain how personal and corporate bankruptcy laws affect risk perceptions of entrepreneurs at time of entry and therefore their growth ambitions. Previous theories have reached ambiguous conc... Read more...

Saul Estrin, Tomasz Mickiewicz and Anna Rebmann

01 April 2017

CEP discussion papers
Foreign direct investment and the relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union

This paper investigates whether and to what extent foreign direct investment inflows into the United Kingdom are caused by its membership in the European Union (EU). It reports two main sets of econometric estimates: (a)... Read more...

Randolph Bruno, Nauro Campos, Saul Estrin and Meng Tian

24 October 2016

CEP Brexit analysis Papers
BREXIT 2016: policy analysis from the Centre for Economic Performance

On June 23rd, the British people will vote in a referendum over whether or not to remain in the European Union. It is the most important vote that most of us will have in our lifetimes. And one that will have major reper... Read more...

Holger Breinlich, Swati Dhingra, Saul Estrin, Hanwei Huang, Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano, Thomas Sampson, John Van Reenen and Jonathan Wadsworth

21 June 2016

CentrePiece - The magazine of the Centre for Economic Performance
Equity crowdfunding: a new model for financing entrepreneurship?

In recent years, the UK has become a leader in fostering an entirely novel mechanism for raising capital for small business enterprises. Saul Estrin and Susanna Khavul explain how ‘equity crowdfunding’ works – and the be... Read more...

Saul Estrin and Susanna Khavul

17 February 2016

CEP discussion papers
Do women earn less even as social entrepreneurs?

Based upon unique survey data collected using respondent driven sampling methods, we investigate whether there is a gender pay gap among social entrepreneurs in the UK. We find that women as social entrepreneurs earn 29%... Read more...

Saul Estrin, Ute Stephan and Suncica Vujic

13 November 2014

CEP discussion papers
Foreign direct investment and domestic entrepreneurship: blessing or curse?

This paper explores the effects of foreign direct investment, measured by mergers and acquisitions, on domestic entrepreneurial entry. We use a micro-panel of more than two thousand individuals disaggregated by industry ... Read more...

Saul Estrin, Seçil Hülya Danakol, Paul Reynolds and Utz Weitzel

23 May 2014

CEP discussion papers
Privatisation versus Competition: Changing Enterprise Behavior in Russia

We investigate whether competitive forces and privatization have yet begun to play an efficiency-enhancing role in Russia. We also explore the economic effects of harder bidget constraints on enterprise behaviour. The em... Read more...

J Earle and Saul Estrin

01 December 1996

CEP discussion papers
Ownership Structures

In this paper, we analyse the effects of the massive Russian privatisation programme on the ownership of Russian firms and on the behaviour of formerly state owned enterprises. A large random sample of Russian firms is u... Read more...

J Earle, Saul Estrin and L Leshchenko

01 November 1996

CEP discussion papers
Enterprise Adjustment in Poland: Evidence from a Survey of 200 Private

This paper reports the main findings from a survey of some 200 Polish firms carried out at the end of 1993. The central focus is on the relationship between different emerging forms of ownership and the extent and nature... Read more...

M Belka, Saul Estrin, M Schaffer and I.J. Singh

01 April 1995

CEP discussion papers
The Provision of Social Benefits in State Owned

We use evidence from a survey of approximately 200 Polish state-owned, privatized, and de novo private manufacturing firms to investigate the nature and scope of enterprises-level provision of social benefits, and in par... Read more...

Saul Estrin, M Schaffer and I.J. Singh

01 February 1995

CEP discussion papers
The Eastern German Labour Market in Transition: Gross Flow Estimates from Panel Data

Following the unification of the two Germanies in October 1990, the former German Democratic Republic was subject to a series of economic shocks, resulting in large declines in output and employment. This paper investiga... Read more...

Lutz Bellmann, Saul Estrin, Hartmut Lehmann and Jonathan Wadsworth

01 September 1992

CEP discussion papers
The Determinants of Investment in Employee Owned Firms: Evidence from France

In this paper we use a large panel data set to test competing hypotheses about investment in employee owned firms (EOFs), especially the view that EOFs will invest less. Most of the variables stressed by labour-managemen... Read more...

Saul Estrin and D Jones

01 July 1992

CEP discussion papers
Firms in Transition: Modelling Enterprise Adjustment

Read more...

Saul Estrin and P Hare

01 July 1992

CEP discussion papers
Some Simple Dynamics of Transition from Command to Market Economy

The recent experience of Eastern European economies- Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia - is analysed in terms of two simple models, the first model characterises the planned economy and derives an expression for the mon... Read more...

Meghnad Desai and Saul Estrin

01 July 1992

CEP discussion papers
Banking in Transition: Development and Current Problems in Hungary

Banking reform is one of the crucial components of a successful programme of transition to the market. In Hungary, the banking system was highly centralised and based on supporting the central planning system from about ... Read more...

Saul Estrin, P Hare and M Suranyi

01 March 1992

CEP discussion papers
Survivability and Degeneration in Employee-Owned Firms: Evidence from France

It has been argued that employee owned firms are not a viable organizational form; either they will fail as commercial undertaking or degenerate into capitalist firms as the proportion of hired workers increases. In this... Read more...

Saul Estrin and D Jones

01 March 1991

CEP discussion papers
Labour Managed vs Private Firms: An Empirical Comparison of Cooperatives and Private Firms in Central Italy

The paper analyses the difference between the behaviour of private firms and producer cooperatives in a matched sample of the two organisational types from Northern Italy, the region with the largest concentration of coo... Read more...

W Bartlett, John Cable, Saul Estrin, D Jones and Cindy Smith

01 January 1991

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