Financing Entrepreneurship before World War 1
Abstract
This project investigates the financing and performance of entrepreneurship in an environment that was characterized by severe information problems and very weak investor protection: Belgium before World War I. Despite these problems, new ventures could raise large amounts of equity and debt on the Belgian capital markets. Different dimensions of entrepreneurial finance in this period will be considered:
- Financing of international entrepreneurship (research with Ine Paeleman)
- Financing of SMEs (research with Oscar Gelderblom and Maite de Sola)
- Financing of entrepreneurship in Belgian Congo and the Congo Free State