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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