Saul Estrin

Saul Estrin
London School of Economics and Political Science | LSE · Department of Management

BA, MA,DPhil

About

433
Publications
115,479
Reads
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19,045
Citations
Introduction
Saul Estrin works at the Department of Management, The London School of Economics and Political Science. Saul does research in Foreign Direct Investment, Entrepreneurial Economics and Emerging Markets.
Additional affiliations
July 2005 - November 2020
London School of Economics and Political Science
Position
  • Professor
Description
  • Founding head of department 2005-2011
December 1991 - June 2005
London Business School
Position
  • Professor (Full)
Description
  • faculty dean 1999-2004
Education
September 1975 - March 1979
University of Sussex
Field of study
  • Economics
September 1971 - July 1974
University of Cambridge
Field of study
  • Economics

Publications

Publications (433)
Article
Full-text available
Theory and evidence from developed economies suggests that innovation activities benefit from agglomeration economies associated with urban economic density. However, despite the fact that eighteen of the world’s top twenty cities are in developing countries, we do not know whether agglomeration affects innovation in the same way in developing coun...
Article
Full-text available
The international business (IB) literature has emphasised the heterogeneity of firm strategies in shaping MNE–state bargaining, but largely ignored the heterogeneity of states. In contrast, the international political economy (IPE) literature provides a more nuanced consideration of state strategies and their economic and political priorities. We s...
Article
Full-text available
It is acknowledged that Asia’s remarkable economic achievements of the past 50 years build on institutional arrangements very different from the West, including the central role of business groups (BGs) as an organisational form. As the Asian economies move from extensive to intensive growth, we enquire whether the BG format will be as effective go...
Chapter
These two volumes bring together many of the most significant contributions to economic theory and policy of Domenico Mario Nuti (1937–2020).
Book
Full-text available
This book, the second of two volumes, brings together the work of Domenico Mario Nuti to highlight his significant and varied contribution to economics. Bringing together works from across Nuti’s career, his distinctive intellectual framework is exemplified in relation to discussions on the drivers of economic growth and development, the most effic...
Article
Full-text available
We explore the nature of business groups (BGs) and their affiliates in emerging markets through the lens of the coordination failures associated with economic development. We propose that BGs develop distinct economic and political capabilities that provide affiliates with access to the complementary resources required for successful exporting. We...
Preprint
Full-text available
Theory and evidence from developed economies suggests that innovation activities benefit from agglomeration economies associated with urban economic density. However, whether the same is true of developing countries has not been investigated by large-scale cross-country analysis, despite the fact that eighteen of the world’s top twenty cities are i...
Chapter
These two volumes bring together many of the most significant contributions to economic theory and policy of Domenico Mario Nuti (1937–2020).
Chapter
In 1990–1997, in the vast majority of central and eastern European countries, the “transition” to the market economy has been accompanied by mass privatisation schemes, i.e. the free or subsidised distribution of state assets to citizens, through vouchers or equivalent means (see Nuti, 1995). This was a major track for the privatisation of large st...
Book
Full-text available
This book, the first of two volumes, brings together the work of Domenico Mario Nuti to highlight his significant and varied contribution to economics. Bringing together works from across Nuti’s career, his distinctive intellectual framework is exemplified in relation to discussions on the drivers of economic growth and development, the most effici...
Article
Full-text available
When companies experience political disruptions to their global business, such as Myanmar 2020 or Russia 2022, challenges in the host economy may be compounded by home country pressures to disengage. How can MNEs navigate such economic and ethical complexity? We suggest that MNEs facing pressures to exit should organize their decision process in th...
Chapter
This handbook presents the latest theoretical and applied thinking on state capitalism, i.e., the institutional, policy, and ownership arrangements that reflect the direct influence of the state on the economy and firm behavior. It is a timely volume given the worldwide changes regarding the role of the state in the economy. Starting in the 1980s,...
Book
A central feature of modern Asia that trumps differences in economic and political systems is the web of close relationships running between and within business and politics; the connections world. These networks facilitate highly transactional interactions yielding significant reciprocal benefits. Although the connections world has not as yet seri...
Article
A central feature of modern Asia that trumps differences in economic and political systems is the web of close relationships running between and within business and politics; the connections world. These networks facilitate highly transactional interactions yielding significant reciprocal benefits. Although the connections world has not as yet seri...
Article
Asian governments focus on growth but also worry about employment; they need to create many new jobs just to keep employment stable. Moreover, most employment remains in the informal sector. Those jobs are generally fragile, low wage and low productivity. While many of the business groups that figure in the connections world also create productive...
Article
Business groups are ubiquitous in Asia. They are networks of firms bound together through formal and informal family ownership. Some are massive; most are highly diversified, and they are often the dominant players in their home country. Business groups are a uniquely well-suited format for the connections world. Opaque cross-holdings and pyramids...
Article
We conclude with an analysis of the constraints that the connections world imposes on Asia’s growth prospects, and the policy options for relaxing them. One is the ability of powerful businesses and families to entrench themselves by virtue of their connections to government and/or politicians. Both parties gain so there is no incentive to change....
Article
We find that most Asian economies are not very innovative by international standards, though in line with their level of development. Asian economies mostly obtain their technologies from abroad through FDI or via technological diffusion. However, FDI to Asia has been modest and entrepreneurship limited, largely as a consequence of the connections...
Article
This chapter provides historical background on Asia, amid talks of an Asian twenty-first century. We show that Asia’s resurgence has been based on models that differ substantively from those of capitalist development in Europe and North America, not least through the heavy reliance on the state. Further, they have had many common features, not leas...
Article
This chapter looks at how Asia’s connections world is configured, highlighting the extraordinarily pervasive nature of ties between business and politics and the networks on which they are based. Most of these relationships are strongly transactional but they also affect how individuals and companies organise themselves. For example, the institutio...
Article
We provide selective account of how and why the share of Asia in the world economy has more than quadrupled in the past half-century. In 1970, Asia (excluding Japan) accounted for around 9 per cent of the world economy. At the turn of the twenty-first century, this had climbed to 18 per cent and today exceeds 40 per cent. Asian growth has occurred...
Book
This handbook presents the latest theoretical and applied thinking on state capitalism, i.e., the institutional, policy, and ownership arrangements that reflect the direct influence of the state on the economy and firm behavior. It is a timely volume given the worldwide changes regarding the role of the state in the economy. Starting in the 1980s,...
Article
Full-text available
Plain English Summary The key role of peer groups in informal investment. In this paper, we use a large multi-country database (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) to explore what leads people to become an informal investor in new ventures. Informal investors, sometimes referred to in developed economies as business angels but also a widespread phenom...
Preprint
Full-text available
Theory and evidence from developed economies suggests that innovation activities benefit from agglomeration economies in cities. However, whether the same is true of developing countries has not been investigated by large-scale cross-country analysis, despite the fact that eighteen of the world’s top twenty cities by population are in developing co...
Article
Full-text available
Does the introduction of corporate transparency and disclosure rules in emerging economies affect compliance, and therefore earnings quality and firm performance? We explore these questions for an important emerging economy, Russia, using a natural experiment, the 2002 introduction of Russian corporate governance code. We exploit the exogenous vari...
Preprint
Full-text available
Does the introduction of corporate transparency and disclosure rules affect compliance and therefore earnings quality and firm performance in emerging economies? We explore these questions for an important emerging economy, Russia, using a natural experiment, the 2002 introduction of Russian corporate governance code, to exploit the exogenous varia...
Article
Purpose This study aims to advance an international political economy (IPE) perspective that geo-political events can have long-lasting imprint effects on countries and their firms. The study also aims to explore the idea that shared political history and geography combine to create specific structural conditions that shape the international compet...
Chapter
We propose that it is an important ongoing research agenda to devise a new classification of economic systems based on empirical observation rather than abstract reasoning, and then subject this to the test of empirical validity by exploring whether this taxonomy explains observed behaviour.
Article
Full-text available
As a digital financial innovation, equity crowdfunding (ECF) allows investors to exploit the complementarity of information provision and network effects in a reduced transaction cost environment. We build on the underlying distinction between soft and hard information and show that ECF platforms create an environment of greater information pooling...
Article
Full-text available
We characterize the knowledge production process whereby the inventive capabilities of the firm generate innovation output in highly inventive multinational enterprises (MNEs). We explore the sensitivity of this relationship to the strength of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection across the MNEs R&D subsidiaries. We argue that MNE innovati...
Article
Full-text available
It is challenging to provide an encompassing portrait of Mario Nuti's life and works: he was an exceptional man, who made significant intellectual contributions across a wide range of fields, as well as inspiring generations of students, colleagues and the profession in general, for more than fifty years. A brilliant debater and controversialist, h...
Chapter
We propose that it is an important ongoing research agenda to devise a new classification of economic systems based on empirical observation rather than abstract reasoning, and then subject this to the test of empirical validity by exploring whether this taxonomy explains observed behaviour. However, we do not ourselves yet attempt a new classifica...
Article
Full-text available
Video abstract: https://youtu.be/v9B9wCPP6z8 Research Summary: We consider what configurations of historical and geographic dimensions influence entrepreneurial growth aspirations (EGA). Our theoretical framework combines geography (coastal location, resource dependence), long-term colonial history (ethnic heterogeneity, legal origins), and post...
Article
Full-text available
Distance is a central concept in the teaching of International Business (IB). However, most textbooks treat distance as static or slowly changing. We argue that distance is inherently a dynamic construct, as highlighted by the impact of COVID-19 on international business activities. Using the popular CAGE framework as a baseline, we illustrate the...
Chapter
Our aim in this chapter is to estimate the effects of European Monetary Union (EMU) membership on foreign direct investment (FDI). Previous literature on the cross-border impact of a common currency have concentrated on international trade effects. Our analysis is based on the gravity model, which has been successfully applied to explain most forms...
Chapter
Our aim in this chapter is to estimate the effects of European Monetary Union (EMU) membership on foreign direct investment (FDI). Previous literature on the cross-border impact of a common currency have concentrated on international trade effects. Our analysis is based on the gravity model, which has been successfully applied to explain most forms...
Article
Full-text available
We explore the public policy implications of two new, significant, and inter-related global phenomena. First, the rising share of services, particularly innovation-driven digital and knowledge-based services, in foreign trade and multinational enterprise activity; and second, the increasingly important role of global cities as home and hosts to the...
Article
Full-text available
This paper explores the impact of EU membership on foreign direct investment (FDI). It analyses empirically how the effects of such deep integration differ from other forms and investigates what drives these effects. Using a structural gravity framework on annual bilateral FDI data for almost every country in the world, over 1985-2018, we find EU m...
Cover Page
Full-text available
COMPARATIVE ECONOMICS OF TRANSITION IN SOUTH EAST EUROPE SPECIAL ISSUE OF ECONOMIC ANNALS No. 225 (2020 PART I) This issue of Economic Annals presents a selection of articles from a workshop on The Comparative Economics of Transition in South East Europe that took place at the University of Belgrade’s Faculty of Economics in September 2019. The wo...
Chapter
Full-text available
In this chapter we outline a reform strategy to promote an entrepreneurial society in the UK. To put it in the words of the Varieties of Capitalism framework, the UK today represents a distinct liberal market economy with a deregulated environment, flexible labor markets, well-funded elite universities, and strong protection of intellectual propert...
Article
Full-text available
We posit that entrepreneurs who engage in strategic activities will have high growth aspirations. Our proposed mechanism is that strategic engagements, specifically product innovation, process innovation and internationalization, open entrepreneurial ventures to learning, and thereby greater growth opportunities. Furthermore, these learning effects...
Data
Data in Stata format to generate the results in Decker, Estrin, Mickiewicz (2020) (Use together with DO file)
Article
Full-text available
This paper considers the factors influencing the comparative performance of state-owned and privately-owned enterprises (SOE/POE). The economics literature has argued that firm performance is influenced by governance arrangements, leading to expectations of inferior performance from SOEs. Meanwhile, a political economy literature classifies countri...
Chapter
In this essay, the authors tell the tale of David’s research journey, ebbing and weaving throughout his academic career. While the subject of David’s focus has drifted over time from Industrial Organization, to Multinational Firms, to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, the interplay between public policy, entrepreneurship, and innovation has been...
Article
Full-text available
Mobile money is a financial innovation that provides transfers, payments, and other financial services at a low or zero cost to individuals in developing countries where banking and capital markets are deficient and financial inclusion is low. We use transaction costs and institutional theories to explain the growth and impact of mobile money. Havi...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
We posit that when entrepreneurs engage in strategic activities from the onset of their new operations, they will have high growth aspirations. Our proposed mechanism is that strategic engagements open entrepreneurial ventures to learning opportunities through new processes, systems and markets, and thereby to greater growth opportunities. We focus...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Do corporate governance reforms influence firm decision-making in the intended way in emerging economies, where the institutional framework is weak and implementation may not be effective? We explore this issue for Russia, which implemented a corporate governance reform in 2002. Contrary perhaps to expectation, we document a significant increase in...
Article
Full-text available
In this paper, we pursue two related research questions. First, we enquire whether state owned enterprises (SOEs) perform better than privately owned firms in a large variety of emerging markets. To test this, we develop a unique dataset using firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES), resulting in a sample of over 50,000 firms f...
Article
Full-text available
Equity crowdfunding (ECF) offers entrepreneurs an online social media marketplace where they can access numerous potential investors who, in exchange for an ownership stake, may supply them with finance. In this paper, we describe the evolution of this market in the UK. Using an inductive qualitative longitudinal research design, we analyse the eme...
Article
Full-text available
We analyze conceptually and in an empirical counterpart the relationship between economic growth, factor inputs, institutions, and entrepreneurship. In particular, we investigate whether entrepreneurship and institutions, in combination in an ecosystem, can be viewed as a “missing link” in an aggregate production function analysis of cross-country...
Chapter
Full-text available
The level of entrepreneurial activity is higher in emerging markets than in developed economies, driven by high levels of necessity entry and less daunting entry barriers, especially in the informal sector. However, a gap remains in our understanding of its extent and of the drivers of its change. This chapter addresses this gap by conceptualizing...
Article
We analyze conceptually and in an empirical counterpart the relationship between economic growth, factor inputs, institutions, and entrepreneurship. In particular, we investigate whether entrepreneurship and institutions, in combination in an ecosystem, can be viewed as a Bmissing link^ in an aggregate production function analysis of cross-country...
Article
Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) from emerging economies (EEs) are establishing operations in advanced economies (AEs), apparently departing from traditional models of internationalization. We explore an under-explored difference between EE MNE and their AE counterparts concerning their country of origin: EEs have less munificent business environme...
Article
We analyse the relationship between institutional systems (configurations of countries with similar institutional characteristics) and firm performance. We use a large sample of firms from understudied countries to explore whether the performance impact of these configurations is the same (“equifinality”), whether this holds across different measur...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose This paper aims to conduct a systematic meta-analysis on emerging economies to summarize these effects and throw light on the strength and heterogeneity of these conditionalities. Design/methodology/approach This paper proposes a new methodological framework that allows country- and firm-level effects to be combined. The authors hand colle...
Article
This paper reviews the recent empirical evidence on privatization in developing countries, with particular emphasis on new areas of research such as the distributional impacts of privatization. Overall, the literature now reflects a more cautious and nuanced evaluation of privatization. Thus, private ownership alone is no longer argued to automatic...
Article
In this paper, we consider the potential paths of Business Group’s (BGs) evolution. We organize our analysis around the two dominant perspectives on BGs: institutional voids (IV) and entrenchment/exploitation (EE). We suggest that the empirical evidence does not entirely support either perspective, and neither fully predicts what we sometimes obser...
Chapter
This paper investigates whether and to what extent foreign direct investment inflows into the United Kingdom are caused by its membership in the European Union (EU). It reports two main sets of econometric estimates: (a) synthetic counterfactual method with annual data for large sample of developing and developed countries over 1970–2014 and (b) gr...
Conference Paper
Abstract We analyse how the patterns of strategic entrepreneurship in Africa are influenced by historically-embedded institutions. We argue that history becomes embedded in institutional environments and significantly influences a key element of strategic entrepreneurship, namely entrepreneurial ambitions. Our work is both qualitiative and quantita...
Article
Full-text available
We consider whether the impact of entrepreneurial orientation on business performance is moderated by the company affiliation with business groups. Within business groups, we Page 1 of 57 explore the trade-off between inter-firm insurance that enables risk-taking, and inefficient resource allocation. Risk-taking in group affiliated firms leads to...
Article
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine two prominent perspectives on business group functioning, institutional void (IV) and entrenchment/exploitation (EE), that make different predictions about the effect of business group (BG) on the economy. The authors examine the effects of BG prevalence in an economy and its effect on macroeconomic o...
Article
Full-text available
We apply prospect theory to explain how personal and corporate bankruptcy laws affect risk perceptions of entrepreneurs at time of entry and therefore their growth ambitions. Previous theories have reached ambiguous conclusions as to whether countries with more debtor-friendly bankruptcy laws (i.e. laws that are more forgiving towards debtors in ba...
Article
Full-text available
There are conflicting predictions in the literature about the relationship between FDI and entrepreneurship. This paper explores how foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, measured by lagged cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A), affect entrepreneurial entry in the host economy. We have constructed a micro-panel of more than two thousand in...
Article
Full-text available
Foreign direct investment (FDI) has been argued to improve company performance and stimulate growth and employment. Transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) faced a desperate need to join the global economy, to improve their competitiveness and to create jobs through FDI. So, did the FDI come, and did it deliver what was expected? F...
Article
Abstract: We explore empirically the relationship between economic growth, factor inputs, institutions, and entrepreneurship. In particular, we investigate whether entrepreneurship and institutions, either independently or in combination in an ecosystem, represent the “missing link” in explaining cross country differences in productivity. To do thi...
Article
We analyze conceptually and in an empirical counterpart the relationship between economic growth, factor inputs, institutions, and entrepreneurship. In particular, we investigate whether entrepreneurship and institutions, in combination in an ecosystem, can be viewed as a “missing link” in an aggregate production function analysis of cross-country...