Courts and Business Registration : Evidence from Serbia

Bruhn, Miriam ; Cho, Caleb ; Marusic, Andreja ; Nguyen, Ha ; Reyes, Jose-Daniel ; Tran, Trang

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: PUBLIC SECTOR REFORM;    BUSINESS REGISTRATION;    BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT;    REGULATION;    ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8611
RP-ID  :  WPS8611

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper studies the effects of areform in Serbia that transferred business registration fromregional courts to a centralized agency. Usingadministrative data, the analysis employs adifference-in-difference strategy that compares new firmsbefore and after the reform across districts based on thelevel of distrust in regional courts. The results suggestthat the reform increased the number of new firms more inregions with higher initial levels of distrust, by up to 34percent. The reform also increased the survival rates of newfirms. These effects are large compared to those of othertypes of registration reforms, suggesting that courts canpose significant barriers to new firm creation.