Law Commons^™

Public Or Private Venture Capital?, Darian M. Ibrahim

Faculty Publications

The United States has an unparalled entrepreneurial ecosystem. Silicon Valley startups commercialize cutting-edge science, create plentiful jobs, and spur economic growth. Without angel investors and venture capital funds (VCs) willing to gamble on these high-risk, high-tech companies, none of this would be possible.

From a law-and-economics perspective, startup investing is incredibly risky. Information asymmetry and agency costs abound. In the United States, angels and VCs successfully mitigate these problems through private ordering and informal means. Countries without the robust private venture capital system that exists in the United States have attempted to fund startups publicly by creating junior stock exchanges …

Securities & Exchange Commission Vs. Elon Musk & The First Amendment, Jerry W. Markham

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Fintech Lending: A Study Of Expectations Versus Market Outcomes, Vincent Dilorenzo

Faculty Publications

This article explores expectations and outcomes. It documents the expectations for the fintech lending industry, which has emerged in this decade, and compares such expectations to market outcomes. It presents an evidence-based analysis for policy making decisions. Part one of the article documents expectations—possible benefits and risks of fintech lending—through large-scale surveys and interviews of industry, consumer and government stakeholders. Part two of the article examines market outcomes—benefits and risks that have been realized or failed to materialize as documented by studies of substantial data sets of various types of fintech loans. The benefits and risks explored include increased access …

How Bitcoin Functions As Property Law, Eric D. Chason

Faculty Publications

Bitcoin replicates many of the formal aspects of real estate transactions. Bitcoin transactions have features that closely resemble grantor names, grantee names, legal descriptions, and signatures found in real property deeds. While these “Bitcoin deeds” may be interesting, they are not profound. Bitcoin goes beyond creating simple digital deeds, however, and replicates important institutional aspects of real estate transactions, in particular recordation and title assurance. Deeds to real property are recorded in a central repository (e.g., the public records office), which the parties (and the public) can search to determine title. When one grantor executes more than one deed covering …

Community Development Finance And Economic Justice, Peter R. Pitegoff

Faculty Publications

This chapter reflects on the history of community economic development, community development financial institutions, and their relationship with law and legal scholarship. It describes the robust use of complex legal and financial tools in community development practice today and presents Maine-based Coastal Enterprises Inc. (CEI) as a window into the evolution of the field over the last four decades. Part II traces the wider history and context of community development finance and of the dramatic expansion in tax credit financing. Part III explores the implications of this trend for sustainability and local accountability, underscoring the distinction between community organizing and …