We show that wrongful discharge laws - laws that protect employees against unjust dismissal - spur innovation and new … employers' ability to hold up innovating employees after the innovation is successful. By reducing the possibility of hold …

employees to pursue value-enhancing innovative activities. Using patents and citations as proxies for innovation, we identify … that within a country, innovation and economic growth are fostered by stringent laws governing dismissal of employees …, especially in the more innovation-intensive sectors. Firm-level tests within the United States that exploit a discontinuity …

innovation, we identify the effect of dismissal laws by exploiting the time-series variation generated by staggered country …-level law changes. Using fixed effect panel regressions and difference-in-difference tests, we find that innovation is fostered by … stringent laws governing dismissal of employees. In addition, stringent dismissal laws disproportionately influence innovation in …

This paper examines the relationship between innovation and firms' dependence on external capital by analyzing the … innovation activities of privately-held and publicly-traded firms. We find that public firms in external finance dependent … in internal finance dependent industries do not have a significantly better innovation profile than matched private firms …