This paper provides evidence of local innovation spillovers (i.e., innovation by one firm fostering innovation by neighboring firms). First, I document that exogenous shocks to innovation by listed firms affect innovation by private firms in the same geographical area and that such local innovation spillovers decline rapidly with distance. Second, these local innovation spillovers stem from knowledge diffusing locally through two channels: learning across local firms and inventors moving from their employer to both existing firms and newly started spin-outs. Finally, I study the two-way relations between innovation spillovers and the availability of capital. I find that local innovation spillovers cause venture capital funds from outside the area to invest more in the local area, and that capital availability amplifies local innovation spillovers

We investigate the effect of stock market liberalization on technological innovation. Using a sample of 20 economies that experience stock market liberalization, we find that these economies exhibit a higher level of innovation output after liberalization and that this effect is disproportionately stronger in more innovative industries. The relaxation of financial constraints, enhanced risk sharing between domestic and foreign investors, and improved corporate governance are three plausible channels that allow stock market liberalization to promote innovation. Finally, we show that technological innovation is a mechanism through which stock market liberalization affects productivity growth and therefore economic growth. Our paper provides new insights into the real effects of stock market liberalization on productivity growth and the economy

Recent complex financial products sold to households contradict the basic premise of canonical innovation theories: Financial innovation benefits its adopters. In my 2006–2015 sample of over 28,000 yield enhancement products (YEP), the securities offer attractive yields but negative returns. The products lose money both ex ante and ex post due to their embedded fees. On average, YEPs charge 6–7% in annual fees and subsequently lose 6–7% relative to risk-adjusted benchmarks. Simple and cheap combinations of listed options often statewise dominate YEPs. Competition, disclosure, or learning do not eliminate this inferior financial innovation over my sample period

The stock market should fund promising new firms, thereby breeding competition, innovation, and economic growth. However, using three decades of data from 47 countries, we show that concentrated stock markets dominated by a small number of very successful firms are associated with less efficient capital allocation, sluggish initial public offering and innovation activity, and slower economic growth. These findings are robust to alternative sample periods, econometric specifications, and competing explanatory variables. Our evidence is consistent with the paradox that the capital market of a competitive economy can impede the continuing competitiveness of that economy

We examine the role of high-skilled foreign labor in VC-backed startups through two natural experiments. First, we show that winning more H-1B visas in random lotteries enhances VC-backed startups’ financial performance, likelihood of going public, and quantity and quality of innovation. Second, we show that the H-1B quota reduction in 2004 caused permanent damage to the performance of startups that previously had used H-1B workers. The findings imply that high-skilled foreign workers possess skills or talents that are difficult to replace and that barriers to securing H-1B visas lower startups’ innovation and financial performance

When government debt is sluggish, consumption exhibits lower expected growth, more long-run uncertainty, and more long-run downside risk. Simultaneously, the risk premium on the consumption claim (Koijen et al. 2010;Lustig et al. 2013) increases and features more positive (adverse) skewness. We rationalize these findings in an endogenous growth model in which fiscal policy is distortionary, the value of innovation depends on fiscal risk, and the representative agent is sensitive to the resulting distribution of consumption risk. Our model suggests that committing to a rapid reduction of the debt-to-output ratio can enhance the value of innovation, aggregate wealth, and welfare

We use staggered share repurchases legalization from 1985 to 2010 across the world to examine its impact on corporate behaviors. We find that share-repurchasing firms do not cut dividends as a substitution. The cash for repurchasing shares comes more from internal cash than external debt issuance, leading to reductions in capital expenditures and R&D expenses. While this strategy boosts stock prices, it results in lower long-run Tobin's Q, profitability, growth, and innovation, accompanied by lower insider ownership. Tax benefits and paying out temporary earnings are two primary reasons that firms repurchase

Why is high-growth entrepreneurship scarce in developing countries? Does this scarcity reflect firm capabilities constraints? We explore these questions using as a laboratory an accelerator in Colombia that selects participants using scores from randomly assigned judges and offers them training, advice, and visibility but no cash. Exploiting exogenous differences in judges’ scoring generosity, we show that alleviating constraints to firm capabilities unlocks innovative entrepreneurs’ potential but does not transform subpar ideas into high-growth firms. The results demonstrate that some high-potential entrepreneurs in developing economies face firm capabilities constraints and accelerators can help identify these entrepreneurs and boost their growth