Local permit requirements are sometimes positively and sometimes negatively associated with business starts in California

A: All permits   B: Environment   C: Zoning  

Source: Author calculations from YourEconomy Time Series and CalGold.
NOTES: Scatterplot of the count of permits by locality within California and 2024 business establishment starts by locality. Panels A–C pertain to all businesses. In Panel A, regressing the establishment start rate on the permit measure yields an estimate (standard error) of 0.0010 (0.0004). In Panel B, the estimate is −0.0001 (0.0008). In Panel C, the estimate is -0.0009 (0.0007). Only the slope in Panel A is statistically significant at the 10 percent level.