ECIN Replication Package for "Privacy Regulation and Firm Performance: Estimating the GDPR Effect Globally"

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Exploiting the timing and territorial scope of the European Union’s General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR), this paper examines how privacy regulation shaped
the financial performance of companies across 31 countries and 22 industries. Con-
trolling for firm and country-industry-year unobserved characteristics, we compare
the outcomes of firms at different levels of exposure to EU markets, before and af-
ter the enforcement of the GDPR in 2018. We find that enhanced data protection
had the unintended consequence of harming the profitability of companies targeting
European consumers, primarily through the cost channel. Digital technology firms
exposed to the regulation experienced a 2.1% decline in profits, but not in sales. We
bolster these findings by showing that the GDPR increased extra expenses, added to
firms wage bills, and accelerated patenting in GDPR-related technology fields.

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本研究依托欧盟《通用数据保护条例》（General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR）的生效时序与适用范围，探讨了隐私监管如何影响31个国家、22个行业内企业的财务表现。在控制企业、国家-行业-年份层面不可观测特征的前提下，我们对比了2018年《通用数据保护条例》生效前后，不同欧盟市场暴露程度的企业的经营结果。研究发现，强化数据保护产生了意料之外的负面影响：主要通过成本渠道，损害了面向欧洲消费者的企业的盈利能力。受该监管约束的数字技术企业利润下滑2.1%，但销售额未受显著影响。我们通过多项佐证进一步强化了上述结论：《通用数据保护条例》推高了企业额外开支，增加了员工薪资总额，并加快了与条例相关技术领域的专利申请速度。