Publications

2021

1. ETP

   Distrust in banks and fintech participation: The case of peer-to-peer lending

   Saiedi, Ed, Mohammadi, Ali, Broström, Anders, and Shafi, Kourosh

   Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 2021

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   What has boosted crowdfunding’s growth? In the case of peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, we highlight the role of consumers’ distrust in banks. We offer evidence that distrust in banks likely triggers individuals to supply funding toward crowdfunding and away from bank deposits. We highlight that a distrust mindset promotes questioning default choices and considering alternatives, and fosters comparisons focusing on dissimilarities. Our findings suggest US states whose residents express greater distrust in banks are more likely to fund P2P loans and, conditional on funding, lend higher amounts. This relationship is more pronounced when funding small loans or borrowers with less banking access.

2. SBE

   Global drivers of cryptocurrency infrastructure adoption

   Saiedi, Ed, Broström, Anders, and Ruiz, Felipe

   Small Business Economics 2021

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   A vast digital ecosystem of entrepreneurship and exchange has sprung up with Bitcoin’s digital infrastructure at its core. We explore the worldwide spread of infrastructure necessary to maintain and grow Bitcoin as a system (Bitcoin nodes) and infrastructure enabling the use of bitcoins for everyday economic transactions (Bitcoin merchants). Specifically, we investigate the role of legal, criminal, financial, and social determinants of the adoption of Bitcoin infrastructure. We offer some support for the view that the adoption of cryptocurrency infrastructure is driven by perceived failings of traditional financial systems, in that the spread of Bitcoin infrastructure is associated with low trust in banks and the financial system among inhabitants of a region, and with the occurrence of country-level inflation crises. On the other hand, our findings also suggest that active support for Bitcoin is higher in locations with well-developed banking services. Finally, we find support for the view that bitcoin adoption is also partly driven by cryptocurrencies’ usefulness in engaging in illicit trade.

2020

2019

1. PhD

   Essays on Financial Technology and SME Finance: A Tale of Two Effects of the Global Financial Crisis: Financing SMEs and Innovative Financing

   Saiedi, Ed

   2019

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   The financial crisis of 2008-2009 took place exactly half a century after the publication of the seminal Modigliani and Miller (M&M) theorem, often called the capital structure irrelevance principle. This timing is curious since the crisis has highlighted the significance of deviations from assumptions of this theorem, i.e. the importance of corporate finance. A decade on, this thesis explores consequences of this unprecedented event by examining the determinants and effects of financiers’ and firms’ financing decisions, whose irrelevance is implied by the capital structure irrelevance principle. The financial crisis has not only expanded our knowledge frontier on corporate financing, it has altered financing itself. A host of financial innovations have arisen in its wake, enabled by digital technologies, which reshape or remove the role of traditional intermediaries. By tracing the adoption of these technologies to the crisis, this thesis frames the crisis not merely as a source of value destruction, but also as a source of creative destruction. Specifically, this thesis aims to empirically investigate two overarching research questions: (1) What are the determinants and real effects of financing decisions and outcomes for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), in the face of crisis-era contractions in bank lending? (Papers IV and III) (2) What are the main drivers of the adoption of new financial technologies? (Papers I and II)