With crowdfunding, an entrepreneur raises external financing from a large audience (the "crowd"), in which each individual provides a very small amount, instead of soliciting a small group of sophisticated investors. This article compares two forms of crowdfunding: entrepreneurs solicit...

With crowdfunding, an entrepreneur raises external financing from a large audience (the "crowd"), in which each individual provides a very small amount, instead of soliciting a small group of sophisticated investors. This article compares two forms of crowdfunding: entrepreneurs solicit...

This article reviews some recent developments in the study of crowdfunding -- i.e., the practice of raising funds through an open call on the Internet. It also shows how microeconomic theory can help us understand some important aspects of crowdfunding that go beyond the finance sphere of the...

Various forms of social learning and network effects are at work on crowdfunding platforms, giving rise to informational and payoff externalities. We use novel entrepreneur-backer data to study how these externalities shape funding dynamics, within and across projects. We find that backers...

We show that the rise of crowdfunding over the past decade fostered entrepreneurship and output growth in the United States. We develop measures of crowdfunding activity at the county level based on all projects successfully funded on Kickstarter (the largest US platform). We find that an...

This study investigates characteristics of individual crowdfunding practices and drivers of fundraising success, where entrepreneurs can tailor their crowdfunding initiatives better than on standardized platforms. Our data indicate that most of the funds provided are entitled to receive either...