Paul Gordon Dickinson’s study focuses on the business regulation for Small and Medium Enterprises SMEs) in Estonia in relation to four identified entrepreneurial circumstances: company formation, land acquisition, taxation and criminality. Field of the dissertation is business law.
Important identified legal parts of each entrepreneurial circumstance are assessed both academically and practically. The study includes an assessment of relevant European Union (EU) Law as well as the overall connection between business regulation, economic growth and SMEs.
– The topic is current as this connection has attracted increasing attention since the global financial crisis. The primary interest of the research is connected to the question as to how the regulation is written and as to whether it operates differently in practice including any unofficial costs, Dickinson tells.
The findings indicate that the wording of the written regulation for all four circumstances is generally clear and detailed (with one or two minor exceptions) in Estonia. It also complies and in many cases goes further than the EU Law. Unofficial costs within the regulatory procedures is very low and in fact non-existent in some circumstances (e.g taxation) although more common in regions where "russification" has taken place.
– Estonia is the least corrupt, has the cheapest cost compliance procedure and is the best regulated for SMEs of the Baltic States countries.
Overall these results offer new empirical evidence on the reality of the entrepreneurial circumstances, as well as an assessment of the wording and conformity to EU law obligations by an ex-Soviet state.
A qualitative empirical approach was taken involving interviews and which was used together with secondary quantitative data. Additionally secondary research data was used and assessed in relation to the four entrepreneurial circumstances for both Latvia and Lithuania.
Public defence
The public examination of Paul Dickinson’s doctoral dissertation “The Entrepreneurial Circumstances for Small Medium Enterprises within Estonia – A Legal Perspective” is on Friday 5 December at 12 o’clock in auditorium Kurtén (C203, Tervahovi). Professor Soili Nystén-Haarala from the University of Lapland will act as opponent and professor Juha Tolonen as custos.
