Using an annual panel of US states over the period 1982-2014, we estimate the response of macroeconomic variables to a shock to the number of new firms (startups). We find that these shocks have significant effects that persist for many years on real GDP, productivity, and population. This...

Recent empirical work using panel data documents that, while the correlation of investment and Tobin's Q is low, the correlation of investment and credit spreads is high. We propose an explanation for these empirical findings, based on time-varying risk, i.e. stochastic volatility. In our model,...

Firms spend substantial resources on marketing and selling. Interpreting this as evidence of frictions in product markets, which require firms to spend resources on customer acquisition, this paper develops a search theoretic model of firm dynamics in frictional product markets. Introducing...

We extend the quantitative corporate finance framework of Hennessy and Whited (2005) by introducing long-term defaultable debt and stochastic volatility. These features lead to significantly lower leverage and higher default probabilities, and a stronger negative correlation of investment with...