While businesses require funding to start and grow, they also rely on human capital, which affects how they raise funds. Labor market frictions make financing labor different than financing capital. Unlike capital, labor cannot be owned and can act strategically. Workers face unemployment costs,...

This paper examines the impact of labor unemployment risk on corporatefinancing decisions. Theory suggests that firms choose conservativefinancial policies partly as a means of mitigating worker exposure tounemployment risk. Using changes in state unemployment insurance benefitlaws as a source...

This paper analyzes the effect of competition on a supermarket firm’s incentive to provide product quality. In the supermarket industry, product availability is an important measure of quality. Using U.S. consumer price index microdata to track inventory shortfalls, I find that stores facing...