Job advertisements are a key instrument for companies to attract talent. We conduct a field experiment in which we randomize the content of job advertisements for STEM jobs in one of the largest European technology firms. Specifically, we study how highlighting job flexibility and career...

Using firm-level survey data combined with firm-level financial information, we investigate the effect of a subjective, firm-specific measure of uncertainty on firm investment and employment growth in the European Union. We find that uncertainty has an economically significant negative effect on...

Why do export sales increasingly concentrate among a few "superstars"? This paper is the first to argue that the expansion of the Internet matters for this phenomenon. Using firm-level customs transaction data from 11 developing countries, we show that the spread of the internet steepens the...

In many capital-intensive markets, sellers sign long-term contracts with buyers before committing to sunk cost investments. Ex-ante contracts mitigate the risk of under-investment arising from ex-post bargaining. However, contractual rigidities reduce the ability of firms to respond flexibly to...

This paper investigates a unique policy designed to maintain employment during the privatization of East German firms after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The policy required new owners of the firms to commit to employment targets, with penalties for non-compliance. Using a dynamic model, we...

The COVID-19 pandemic caused an unprecedented global economic downturn, affecting productivity, business dynamics, and digital technology adoption. Using a comprehensive commercial database from Spiceworks Ziff Davis, this study analyses the firm-level drivers of digitalisation during the...

This paper analyses employment dynamics across firms during the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of job retention schemes (JRS) in shaping these dynamics. It relies on a novel collection of high-frequency harmonised micro-aggregated statistics, computed using administrative data on employment and...

Despite the ambitious carbon reduction targets set by policy makers worldwide, current investments fall well short of the net-zero emissions scenario. This paper analyses the factors holding back corporate green investment, with a particular focus on the role of firm capacity – specifically...

We provide an evaluation of the impact of German public subsidy schemes in municipalities of Bavaria and Lower Saxony aimed at supporting the deployment of basic broadband infrastructure in rural Germany. Such subsidies are subject to state aid control by the European Commission and may only be...

We examine effects of government-imposed employment targets on firm behavior. Theoretically, such policies create "polarization," causing low-productivity firms to exit the market while others temporarily distort their employment upward. Dynamically, firms are incentivized to improve...