Formal institutions, for example, regulations, are considered crucial determinants of entrepreneurship, but what enables regulatory change when there is a regulatory void, meaning entrepreneurship clashes with existing regulations? Drawing on public choice theory, we hypothesize that regulatory freedom facilitates the introduction of legislation to fill such voids. We test this hypothesis using unique data documenting the time for ridesharing to become legalized at the state level across the United States following its local (and often illegal) rollout. Results suggest states with greater regulatory freedom passed ridesharing legislation quicker, highlighting an underappreciated way that extant regulatory freedom facilitates the accommodation of entrepreneurship.

正式的制度，例如法规，被认为是创业的关键决定因素，但是当存在监管空白时，什么能够促成监管变革，这意味着创业与现有法规发生冲突？借鉴公共选择理论，我们假设监管自由有助于引入立法来填补这些空白。我们使用独特的数据来检验这一假设，这些数据记录了拼车在当地（通常是非法的）推出后在美国各州合法化的时间。结果表明，监管自由度更高的州更快地通过了拼车立法，凸显了一种未被充分认识的方式，即现有的监管自由促进了企业家精神的适应。