This paper investigates, both theoretically and empirically, the implications that complementary assets needed for the formation of start-ups - proxied by the ease of access to financial resources - have on the innovative efforts of incumbent firms. In particular, we develop a theoretical model,...

We debate the motivation for and effectiveness of public policies to encourage individuals to become entrepreneurs. Reviewing established evidence we find that most western world policies do not greatly reduce or solve any market failures but instead waste taxpayers' money, encourage those...

Dieses Policy Paper zeigt die Entwicklung von Gründungen und Start-ups in Deutschland auf und stellt nach einem Blick auf die internationalen Venture-Capital-Märkte den Zukunftsfonds vor, mit dem die Bundesre-gierung die Start-up-Finanzierung auf eine neue Grundlage stellen möchte. Während...

This note describes a new database on innovative start-ups and companies, called Crunchbase, with a focus on its potential for economic and managerial research. Crunchbase is rapidly being discovered by scholars from different fields. It has notably already informed studies on specific sectors...

The U.S. entrepreneurial finance market has changed dramatically over the last two decades. Entrepreneurs raising their first round of venture capital retain 30% more equity in their firm and are more likely to control their board of directors. Late-stage startups are raising larger amounts of...

We study how access to high-skill labor affects the outcomes of start-up firms. We obtain exogenous variation in firms' ability to access skilled labor by using win rates in H 1B visa lotteries. Relative to other firms that also applied for H-1B visas, firms with higher lottery win rates are...

From 2010 to 2021, 639 US VC-funded firms achieved unicorn status. We investigate why there are so many unicorns and why controlling shareholders give investors privileges to obtain unicorn status. We show that unicorns rely more than other VC-funded firms on organizational capital as well as...

Because of the recent surge in the number of unicorns and their role in spurring entrepreneurship and social impacts, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and regulators are concerned about how startup firms are valued. This is due to a lack of financial and historical information about startups...

We analyze determinants of access to venture capital for Black founders of high-growth startups. We combine image- and name-processing algorithms with clerical review to identify race for over 100,000 startup founders "at risk" for venture funding. Black founders raise roughly one-third as much...