Publications
Publications
- 2024
- HBS Working Paper Series
Antitrust Platform Regulation and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from China
By: Ke Rong, D. Daniel Sokol, Di Zhou and Feng Zhu
Abstract
Many jurisdictions have launched antitrust enforcement and brought in regulation of large tech platforms. The swift and strict implementation of China’s Anti-Monopoly Guidelines for the Platform Economy (Platform Guidelines) provides a quasi-natural experiment to evaluate the impact of antitrust regulation on platform competition. We adopt a difference-in-differences approach to empirically explore the impact of China’s Platform Guidelines on the number of investments and the entry of startups in platform markets. The results show that the Platform Guidelines did not increase competition in these affected markets. Rather, competition weakened in these markets, with less venture capital investment flowing into them and fewer startups entering these markets. Our study suggests that governments should consider more carefully the potential unintended consequences of antitrust platform regulation.
Keywords
Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Competition; Venture Capital; Market Entry and Exit; Supply and Industry; China
Citation
Rong, Ke, D. Daniel Sokol, Di Zhou, and Feng Zhu. "Antitrust Platform Regulation and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from China." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 24-039, January 2024.