
Daniel L. BennettUniversity of Louisville | UL · Department of Entrepreneurship
Daniel L. Bennett
Doctor of Philosophy
About
53
Publications
28,998
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1,154
Citations
Introduction
My research focuses on the role that institutions, public policy, and other environmental factors play in shaping regional entrepreneurial dynamics and economic development.
Additional affiliations
July 2014 - present

Patrick Henry Community College
Position
- Assistant Professor of Economics
August 2010 - May 2014
Education
August 2010 - May 2014
Publications
Publications (53)
Investments in physical infrastructure induce environmental changes that serve both an enabling and disabling function, potentially acting to simultaneously stimulate new business establishment and provoke exit by some incumbent establishments. The opening of a new establishment results in the creation of jobs that did not previously exist. Similar...
Economic freedom facilitates the market selection mechanism that enables the Schumpeterian creative destruction process. I develop a framework depicting how economic freedom, which reduces entry barriers and transactions costs, acts as an external enabler that facilitates the creation of firms and jobs. It also facilitates the market correction dev...
The historical prevalence of infectious diseases has had an enduring effect on innovation around the world. Building on the Parasite Stress Theory of Values, we propose a framework suggestive that the impact of historical disease pathogens on contemporary innovation is transmitted through the development of cultural values as an evolutionary psycho...
Previous research suggests that both formal institutions (e.g., pro-market institutions) and informal institutions (e.g., individualistic cultural values) are critical drivers of innovation. Most studies, however, consider the independent role of either formal or informal institutions. We contribute to this gap in the literature by exploring the po...
Using institutional economic theory as our guiding framework, we develop a model to describe how populist discourse by a nation’s political leader influences entrepreneurship. We hypothesize that populist discourse reduces entrepreneurship by creating regime uncertainty concerning the future stability of the institutional environment, resulting in...
This seminal Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of contemporary research on economic freedom, using multidisciplinary methods to assess studies of the determinants and consequences of market-oriented institutions and policies. Niclas Berggren brings together world-leading experts in their respective fields to explore the notion of economic...
We investigate the influence of regional innovation networks (RINs) on high-growth entrepreneurship within the framework of the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship (KSTE). While previous studies have separately examined RINs' role in knowledge diffusion and the geographical characteristics of high-growth firms, the connection between the...
While economic freedom has been linked to positive outcomes such as economic growth and well-being, studies examining its relationship with income inequality have produced inconsistent results. The chapter reviews empirical research published in peer-reviewed journals indexed in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) that employ multidimensional...
While scholars agree that institutions are critical for enabling and constraining entrepreneurial action, the mechanisms by which institutions shape individual entrepreneurs’ actions remain underdeveloped. Whereas a prior work focuses on the direct and moderating effects of institutions on entrepreneurial action, we propose that institutions also i...
Using institutional economic theory as our guiding framework, we develop a model to describe how populist discourse by a nation's political leader influences entrepreneurship. We hypothesize that populist discourse reduces entrepreneurship by creating regime uncertainty concerning the future stability of the institutional environment, resulting in...
This research provides an improved understanding of how ventures successfully organize via resource allocations. Conceptually, we apply elements of action theory to account for resource trade-offs that occur as entrepreneurs make decisions about adding staff members to boundary spanning, technical core, and management functions. We then model how t...
We explore the role of regional innovation networks (RINs) in facilitating high-growth entrepreneurship. Combining insights from two perspectives on knowledge spillovers (i.e., knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship and network-based perspective), we theorize that RINs serve as a conduit for the spillovers of complex knowledge from inventor...
A nascent body of research suggests that economic freedom is positively associated with entrepreneurial activity. Most of this literature is based on cross-countries analyses, although there is significant regional heterogeneity in entrepreneurial activity and the institutional and policy context within countries. The literature also largely overlo...
Economic freedom facilitates the market selection mechanism that enables the Schumpeterian creative destruction process. I develop a framework depicting how economic freedom, which reduces entry barriers and transaction costs, acts as an external enabler that facilitates the creation of firms and jobs. It also facilitates the market correction devi...
Coups and regime transitions are events that typically are intended to change the basic institutional framework of a country. Which specific institutions change and the consequences of these changes nevertheless remains largely unknown. Change after a coup or transition implies that some form of political or judiciary barrier has been erected or re...
A large portion of the real income gains from economic growth in the US since the 1970's have accrued to the top income quartile. We evaluate the equality-efficiency trade-off using subjective wellbeing data from the General Social Survey. Specifically, we estimate the parameter of inequality aversion within a neo-utilitarian framework of welfare a...
Economic freedom facilitates the market selection mechanism that enables the Schumpeterian creative destruction process. I develop a framework depicting how economic freedom, which reduces entry barriers and transactions costs, acts as an external enabler that facilitates the creation of firms and jobs. It also facilitates the market correction dev...
Incumbent politicians have a well-known advantage in seeking re-election. Using the Economic Freedom of North America dataset, we examine how changes in economic policy during an incumbent governor's tenure influence the probability of losing their re-election bid. Put simply, does economic policy matter for the incumbent advantage? The results sug...
We study the effects of homeschool background and time use on academic performance among students at Patrick Henry College, a private religious institution with a 63-credit core classical liberal arts curriculum. Using ordinary least squares regression analysis, we examine four research questions: (1) Does time use influence academic performance? (...
En Econintech nos vestimos de gala y orgullo el poder realizar nuestra primera edición de un libro precisamente en homenaje a uno de los más grandes luchadores por la libertad económica de Venezuela.
Hugo, nuestro Senior Researcher & Policies Consultant, además de profesor y amigo es un guía en el arduo camino de la lucha intelectual por la liberta...
Previous research on the relationship between capitalistic institutions and income inequality has produced mixed results. We provide a short survey of this literature, identifying potential causes for this empirical heterogeneity. Next, we replicate the results from two of the relevant studies using six alternative measures of income inequality for...
This paper examines the relationship between economic freedom (EFW) and happiness inequality for a large sample of countries. We find that economic freedom is negatively associated with happiness inequality and robust to several alternative measures of happiness inequality including the standard deviation, mean absolute difference, coefficient of v...
We explore the relationship between emotional well-being and economic freedom. Using data for a sample of 12 countries from wave 2 of the World Value Survey (WVS) and the Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) index, we find that people living in more economically free societies are more likely to report the presence of positive affect and absence of...
Previous research on the relationship between economic freedom and income inequality has produced mixed results. We provide a short survey of this literature, identifying potential causes for this empirical heterogeneity. Next, we replicate the results from two significant studies using six alternative measures of income inequality for an updated d...
Existing literature suggests that either colonial settlement conditions or the identity of colonizer were influential in shaping the post-colonial institutional environment, which in turn has impacted long-run economic development. These two potential identification strategies have been treated as substitutes. We argue that the two factors should i...
This paper provides an empirical test of the Engerman–Sokoloff hypothesis that factor endowments influenced the development of the rule of law, which in turn has perpetuated income inequality. Using a measure of the suitability of land for growing wheat relative to sugarcane as an instrument for the rule of law, as measured by area 2 of the Economi...
It is by now well-established in the development economics literature that institutions play a vital role in shaping social, economic, and political incentives, reducing transaction costs and uncertainty, and promoting long-run economic growth. Following recent developments on the measurement of socio-economic progress, which emphasize the importan...
A growing body of research suggests that private property rights are an
important determinant of economic development. This paper assesses five
commonly used measures of property rights and their relative ability to
predict economic development. The International Country Risk Guide risk
of expropriation and World Governance Indicators rule of law m...
This chapter examines distorted views of capitalism, challenging the popular view that capitalism is a villainous perpetuator and government a saintly corrector of cronyism and inequality. These misperceptions result not only in a distorted understanding of the institutional structure that underlies capitalism and the mechanisms in which income is...
In this exploratory eclectic study for the year 2005, we find that the nominal median new house price in any given state was an increasing function of the state’s per capita income, the net immigration rate, the average January temperature, and the degree of urbanization. In addition the evidence strongly suggests that the nominal median new house...
We explore the relationship between individual control perceptions and the degree to which a country's institutions and policies are consistent with the principles of economic freedom. Using data from the World Value Surveys and the Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) index, we find that people living in more economically free countries are more li...
Public policy designed to promote greater college enrollment rates has often been justified as a means to reduce income inequalities, yet there is very little evidence that higher college attainment is associated with less inequality. Economic theory at best suggests that the relationship between college attainment and inequality is ambiguous. An o...
This paper provides an empirical test of the Engerman-Sokoloff hypothesis that factor endowments influenced the development of the rule of law, which in turn has shaped the income distribution. Using a measure of the suitability of land for growing wheat relative to sugarcane as an instrument for the rule of law, as measured by area 2 of the Econom...
We explore the relationship between individual control perceptions and the degree to which a country's institutions and policies are consistent with the principles of economic freedom. Using data from the World Values Surveys (WVS) and the Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) index, we find that people living in more economically free countries are...
This paper examines the dynamic relationship between economic freedom and income inequality in the 50 U.S. states over the 1979-2004 period. Using fixed effects regression analysis, we find evidence that increases in economic freedom are associated with lower income inequality, but the dynamic relationship between the two variables depends on the i...
Conventional wisdom suggests that American higher education was governed by a free market during the post-Revolutionary antebellum period. An analysis of the political economy of the sector during the period suggests that it did exhibit elements of laissez-faire, but that it was also subject to a non-trivial amount of market-distorting state interv...
The UK government - in common with the governments of many Western countries - is in the midst of implementing policies to reform education. However, the government has, as a matter of principle, decided that profit-making schools cannot provide state-funded education even if they would lead to substantial improvements in quality.This monograph mak...
This paper estimates historical measures of equality in the distribution of education in the United States by age group and sex. Using educational attainment data for the population, the EduGini measure indicates that educational inequality in the U.S. declined significantly between 1950 and 2009. Reductions in educational inequality were more prof...
Part one presents our analysis of accreditation’s performance. Because its role and function in higher
education has changed over time, we find it worthwhile to discuss the history of accreditation very briefly.
We identify four eras of accreditation in order to assess both its effectiveness and its changing role over
time. To facilitate our analys...
This report will analyze employment trends and labor productivity at institutions of higher education
over the past twenty years. What I find is that colleges have altered the composition of their work force
by steadily increasing the number of managerial positions and support/service staff, while at the same
time disproportionately increasing t...
Questions
Question (1)
The relationship between institutions and well-being is a topic of growing interest to academics and policymakers. Much of the attention in the economics literature has been on the role that various types of institutions (e.g., economic, informal, legal, political and social) exert on economic development and growth. However, there is an emerging understanding that societal well-being must be understood in a much broader context and make reference to a number of inter-related socio-economic outcomes besides aggregate income.
The purpose of this special issue is to advance the literature through a collection of papers on under-researched topics that fall under the rubric of institutions and well-being. Topics of particular interest – from a theoretical, experimental, and empirical perspective – include (but are not restricted to) papers on how institutional arrangements shape important quality of life metrics such as:
Economic Development / Growth / Adjusted GDP (Genuine investment)
Educational / Environmental / Health Outcomes
Entrepreneurship / Social Capital
Inequality / Mobility / Poverty
Happiness / Subjective Well-being
Papers for the special issue must be submitted online through the Journal’s webpage and is open to the academic community at large.
A generous grant from the Charles Koch Foundation enables us to offer an honorarium of $1000 per paper accepted for the special issue. Since our goal is to promote a public dialogue on the topic, all papers will be published open access.
Submission deadline for papers for the special issue is July 1, 2015.