@article{Guinnane:123319,
      recid = {123319},
      author = {Guinnane, Timothy W. and Marrinez Rodriguez, Susana},
      title = {For Every Law, a Loophole: Flexibility in the Menu of  Spanish Business Forms, 1886-1936},
      address = {2012-05},
      number = {1858-2016-152803},
      series = {Economic Growth Center Discussion Paper},
      pages = {47},
      year = {2012},
      abstract = {The Spanish business code allowed firms great flexibility  in their organizational form in the late nineteenth and  early twentieth century. Until 1920, firms had the same  basic choices as in France and some other European  countries, namely, the corporation, the ordinary  partnership, or the limited partnership. But Spanish law  was unusually flexible, allowing firms to adapt the  corporation especially to the needs of its owners. Starting  in 1920 Spanish firms could also organize as a Sociedad de  Responsabilidad Limitada (SRL), a form similar to the  German GmbH or the British Private Limited Company (PLC).  But some firms had already adopted the form prior to 1920.  The Spanish coded lacked the principle of “numerus clauses”  that is central to many areas of law. Most business codes  allow firms to choose only from a proscribed menu of  options. The Spanish code offered these options but also  stated that firms could organize in other ways if they  wished. This paper uses three empirical sources to study  the way firms actually used those possibilities. We find  that this flexibility did not make entrepreneurs  indifferent across the different organizational forms.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/123319},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.123319},
}