One in three deals in the early-stage financing market involves an investor and founder from the same alma mater. We show that founders' connections to early-stage investors through shared education networks are more important than school academic quality or shared geography in facilitating...

I study how mutual funds invest in public U.S. firms where founding family members retain a significant portion of shares. I posit that informed funds exploit the opaque nature of family firms by holding large positions when they have good private signals about the firms. By studying actively...

This paper proposes and analyses a model of start-up investment. Innovative entrepreneurs are commercially inexperienced and can benefit from venture capital support. Only part of them succeed in matching with a venture capitalist while the rest must resort to standard bank finance. We consider...

This paper proposes a simple partial equilibrium model to investigate the effects of government policy on venture capital backed investments. Giving up an alternative career, entrepreneurs focus their effort on a single, high risk venture each. Venture capitalists acquire an equity stake and...

This paper proposes a simple partial equilibrium model to investigate the effects of government policy on venture capital backed investments. Giving up an alternative career, entrepreneurs focus their effort on a single, high risk venture each. Venture capitalists acquire an equity stake and...

The paper studies the effects of tax policy on venture capital activity. Entrepreneurs pursue a single high risk project each but have no own resources. Financiers provide equity finance. They must structure the entrepreneur's profit share and base salary to assure their incentives for full...

We examine the dynamics of the positive sorting in the venture capital industry. Our findings indicate that switching lead VCs is not uncommon during the course of entrepreneurial firms' development. Companies with upwardly revised perceived quality are more likely to switch to more reputable...

The VICO project collected a database on young high-tech entrepreneurial companies operating in seven European countries (Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom). The objective of the data collection process was to build a data infrastructure to conduct an...

This paper empirically examines business starts, deaths, venture capital and patents in relation to U.S. public policy. The most consistent evidence in the data shows that lower levels of labor frictions and higher levels of SBIR awards are associated with more business starts and higher levels...

This paper empirically examines business starts, deaths, venture capital and patents in relation to U.S. public policy. The most consistent evidence in the data shows that lower levels of labor frictions and higher levels of SBIR awards are associated with more business starts and higher levels...