Economists have long linked higher levels of regulation with less innovation, and a soon-to-be-published study of French firms provides additional evidence to support what is now conventional wisdom.
The study, a 2021 working paper that will soon be published in the American Economic Review, was conducted by economists Philippe Aghion and John Van Reenen of the London School of Economics and Antonin Bergeaud of HEC Paris. They used data from the French tax authorities from 1994 to 2007 to determine if regulation affects "the pace and nature of innovation" in firms "and if so, by how much?"
