We track firms at birth and compare the growth and responsiveness to demand shocks of IPO firms and their birth-matched counterparts. Firms that are larger at birth with faster initial growth are more likely to go public. Firms in the top percentile of predicted propensity to go public grow 29...

The Cultural Revolution deprived Chinese students of the opportunity to receive higher education for 10 years when colleges and universities were closed from 1966-1976. We examine the human capital cost of this loss of education on subsequent innovation by firms, and ask if it impacted firms...

We track firms at birth and compare the growth pattern of IPO firms and their birth-matched counterparts. Firms that are larger at birth with faster initial growth are more likely to attain a larger size later in life and go public. Firms in the top percentile of predicted propensity to go...