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...

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...

Crowdfunding is still a relatively new phenomenon, but it rapidly emerged as an integral part of the entrepreneurial finance landscape. In this paper, I provide an overview the crowdfunding phenomenon. I first describe the crowdfunding process, its actors and markets. Then I outline the dynamics...