I theoretically and empirically show that dismissal laws - laws that impose hurdles on firing of employees - spur innovation and thereby economic growth. Theoretically, dismissal laws make it costly for firms to arbitrarily discharge employees. This enables firms to commit to not punish...

Financial crises are accompanied by permanent drops in economic growth and output. Technological progress and innovation are important drivers of economic growth. This paper studies how financial crises affect innovative activities. Using cross-country panel data on patenting at the...

This paper investigates whether multinational firms are less or more efficient in innovation activities than domestic firms. Using patents and citations scaled by R&D expenses and R&D capital as measures of innovation efficiency, we find that multinational firms have lower levels of innovation...

We investigate whether social trust improves corporate innovation. Based on a comprehensive firm- level panel dataset of patents filed by companies from 45 countries over 1995–2015, we find that compared with firms in low-trust countries, firms in high-trust countries have higher innovation...

We provide empirical evidence that strong dismissal laws appear to have a positive effect on the innovative pursuits of firms and their employees. Stringent labor laws provide firms a commitment device to not punish short-run failures and thereby spur their employees to pursue value-enhancing...