This paper explores, both theoretically and empirically, how firing costs affect worker productivity and turnover. We develop a model in which workers are essential to knowledge transfer between firms and worker effort is firm-specific in the sense that a worker can be fired before reaping the...

This paper studies how firing costs affect the productivity of knowledge workers. We develop a holdup model in which workers are essential to knowledge transfer between firms and show that if the worker's knowledge stock is sufficiently transferable to competing firms, an increase in firing...

Based on a survey of the inventors of 9,017 European patented inventions, this paper provides new information about the characteristics of European inventors, the sources of their knowledge, the importance of formal and informal collaborations, the motivations to invent, and the actual use and...

In this paper, we suggest that staffing decisions in R&D alliances can reduce the inherent tension between value creation and value protection faced by participating firms. By considering R&D workers a primary source of knowledge leakage, we analyze the role of their intellectual property...

We investigate the link between mandated disclosure and investor preferences using a regulatory change that required the disclosure of patent applications 18 months after filing. This change allows us to separate the disciplinary effect provided by disclosure from the information effect....

Do financial derivatives enhance or impede innovation? We aim to answer this question by examining the relationship between equity options markets and standard measures of firm innovation. Our baseline results show that firms with more options trading activity generate more patents and patent...

This study examines how the ownership structure of corporations shapes their responses to technological change. We predict that mixed ownership, a situation in which, following privatization, the shares of a company are partly privately held and partly held by the government, is associated with...

This paper analyzes whether institutional ownership affects the nature of corporate innovation. We consider the heterogeneity of firm innovation by differentiating upstream research from downstream development using novel indicators for scientific publications and patents. Our analysis shows...