The Economics of Crowdfunding Startups, Portals and Investor Behavior

This book focuses on various types of crowdfunding and the lessons learned from academic research. Crowdfunding, a new and important source of financing for entrepreneurs, fills a funding gap that was traditionally difficult to close. Chapters from expert contributors define and carefully evaluate the various market segments: donation-based and reward-based crowdfunding, crowdinvesting and crowdlending. They further provide an assessment of startups, market structure, as well as backers and investors for each segment. Attention is given to the theoretical and empirical findings from the recent economics and finance literature. Furthermore, the authors evaluate relevant regulatory efforts in several jurisdictions. This book will appeal to finance, entrepreneurship and legal scholars as well as entrepreneurs and platform operators.

Douglas Cumming is a Professor of Finance and Entrepreneurship and the Ontario Research Chair at the Schulich School of Business, York University, Canada. Douglas has published over 140 articles in leading refereed academic journals in finance, management, and law and economics. He is the incoming Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Corporate Finance (January 2018), and a Co-Editor of Annals of Corporate Governance, Finance Research Letters, and Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. He is the author and editor of over a dozen books. Douglas’ work has been reviewed in numerous media outlets, including The Economist, The New York Times, and The New Yorker.