We exploit a policy change in the UK Help-to-Buy (HTB) equity loan scheme in order to identify the causal link between mortgage affordability and entrepreneurship activity at the local level. We contribute to the literature on the relationship between housing finance and entrepreneurship by demonstrating the impact of government equity loans on entrepreneurship through the release of trapped liquidity. When less equity is required to buy a house, households could use the ‘additional’ liquidity to start a business. We use a spatial discontinuity in treatment methodology to take advantage of the reform of the Help-to-Buy scheme in 2016, which increased the limit of equity loans provided in London. By using data on business population at the postcode sector level, we are able to measure the impact of the new policy by comparing similar areas on the opposite sides of the Greater London Authority boundary. Our results show that an increase in mortgage affordability fosters entrepreneurial activity in affected areas by 20%, resulting in 1 more start-up on average per postcode per year. The new businesses are mainly single-plant micro enterprises in capital intensive sectors with low income volatility.

我们在英国的“帮助购买”（HTB）股票贷款计划中采用了一项政策变更，目的是确定抵押贷款承受能力与当地企业家活动之间的因果关系。通过展示政府释放的流动性来证明政府股权贷款对企业家精神的影响，我们为有关住房金融与企业家精神之间关系的文献做出了贡献。当购买房屋所需的权益减少时，家庭可以利用“额外”流动资金来开展业务。我们在处理方法上使用了空间上的不连续性，以利用2016年“帮助购买”计划的改革，该改革增加了伦敦提供的股权贷款的限额。通过使用邮政编码部门级别的企业人口数据，我们可以通过比较大伦敦当局边界对面的相似区域来衡量新政策的影响。我们的结果表明，按揭负担能力的提高使受灾地区的企业家活动增加了20％，平均每年每个邮政编码的启动次数增加了1个。新业务主要是资本密集型行业的单工厂微型企业，收入波动较小。