How does access to public equity markets affect real outcomes? We examine the human capital of IPO-filing firms and how going public affects their labor force. While IPO-filing firms have high average wages and limited industrial diversification, a success-ful IPO increases departures of...

Recent research suggests that employment in young firms is more negatively impacted during economic downturns than employment in incumbent firms. This questions the effectiveness of policies that promote entrepreneurship to fight crises. We complement prior research that is mostly based on...

I study the effect of human capital on firms' leverage decisions in a structural dynamic model. Firms produce using physical capital and labor. They pay a cost per employee they hire, thus investing in human capital. In default a portion of this human capital investment is lost. The loss of...

We study how R&D-driven firm innovation and capital structure interact in a tradeoff model allowing for inventor mobility, innovation strategy switches, and limited failure tolerance. Debt use reduces firms' acquirable R&D benefits by hurting their ability to attract inventive human capital....