We exploit state-level changes in the amount of personal wealth individuals can protect under Chapter 7 to analyze the effect of debtor protection on the financing structure and performance of a representative panel of U.S start-ups. The effect of increasing debtor protection depends on the...

Using U.S. Census firm-worker data, I document that firms' financial distress has an economically important effect on employee departures to entrepreneurship. The impact is amplified in the high-tech and service sectors, where employees are key assets. In states with enforceable noncompete...

Using U.S. Census firm-worker data, I document that firms' financial distress has an economically important effect on employee departures to entrepreneurship. The impact is amplified in the high-tech and service sectors, where employees are key assets. In states with enforceable noncompete...

We construct a mortality table for U.S. public companies during 1985-2006. We find that firms' age-specific mortality rates initially increase, peaking at age three, and then decrease with age, implying that the first three years of public life are critical. Financial intermediaries involved...

We construct a mortality table for U.S. public companies during 1985–2006. We find that firms' age-specific mortality rates initially increase, peaking at age three, and then decrease with age, implying that the first three years of public life are critical. Financial intermediaries involved...

After highlighting the importance of small companies to the UK economy, new archival evidence is provided from an exploratory study which investigates the financing and failure of 21,147 UK single owner-managed (OM) corporate start-ups. Relative to comparable US survey evidence, UK OM corporate...

The trajectory of new business applications and transitions to employer businesses differ markedly during the Great Recession and the COVID-19 recession. Both applications and transitions to employer startups decreased slowly but persistently in the post-Lehman crisis period of the Great...