This paper examines the impact of pollution on entrepreneurial activity. I use the recurring cicada emergence cycles in the U.S. as exogenous shocks to show that pollution caused by pesticide use decreases entrepreneurial activity and quality by 3%. I find that pesticide use is linked to the...

A rich but tractable variant of the Burdett-Mortensen model of wage setting behavior is formulated and a dynamic market equilibrium solution to the model is defined and characterized. In the model, firms cannot commit to wage contracts. Instead, the Markov perfect equilibrium to the wage setting...

A rich but tractable variant of the Burdett-Mortensen model of wage setting behavior is formulated and a dynamic market equilibrium solution to the model is defined and characterized. In the model, firms cannot commit to wage contracts. Instead, the Markov perfect equilibrium to the wage setting...

Young and small firms are typically matched with younger and nonemployed individuals, and they provide these workers with lower earnings compared to other firms. To explore the mechanisms behind these facts, a dynamic model of entrepreneurship is introduced, where individuals can choose not to...

A series of reforms passed in Italy in 2010 reduced the expected duration of registration and startup procedures for new businesses. Previous research has found that procedural simplifications of this nature have a positive impact on the selection of firm entry in the short run and consequently...

This paper studies firm dynamics over the business cycle. I present evidence from the United Kingdom that more rapidly growing firms are born in expansions than in recessions. Using administrative records from Census data, I find that this observation also holds for the last four recessions in...

About half of all startups fail within five years, and those that survive grow at vastly different speeds. Using Census microdata, we estimate that most of these differences are determined by ex-ante heterogeneity rather than persistent ex-post shocks. Embedding such heterogeneity in a firm...

How are the options to buy and sell a business relevant for entrepreneurs? Prospective entrepreneurs value the purchase of mature firms while incumbents want to recover both the tangible and intangible value of their businesses upon exit. We introduce a theory of entrepreneurial assets transfer...

In the data, entrepreneurship contributes to the micro and macro-level patterns of gross labor market flows and the selection into that occupation is highly responsive to labor market policy changes. Using an occupational choice model of employment, unemployment, and entrepreneurship, we show...

Entrepreneurs' exposure to economic uncertainty from regulation, monetary policy, and taxation is exacerbated by the inflexibility of capital asset commitments. Entrepreneurs adapt to uncertainty by reducing asset specificity. While the mainstream approach tends to focus on reduced aggregate...