
- 13 Oct 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Fencing Off Silicon Valley: Cross-Border Venture Capital and Technology Spillovers
This study of foreign corporate investment transactions from 32 countries between 1976 and 2015 finds these investments pose a trade-off: While they support young firms in pursuing innovations they could not otherwise afford, they also generate knowledge for the foreign investors.

- 29 Jul 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Two Case Studies on the Financing of Forest Conservation
Case studies about The Conservation Fund and Sonen Capital highlight three broad lessons about fresh approaches to the ownership and management of forestland.

- 16 Jun 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Government Incentives for Entrepreneurship
Even though many public policy efforts on entrepreneurship are well intentioned, the success rate has been disappointing. This essay explores these policies, focusing on financial incentives to entrepreneurs and the intermediaries who fund them.

- 07 Jun 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Financial Distancing: How Venture Capital Follows the Economy Down and Curtails Innovation
Common wisdom holds that VC investment and VC-backed startups are relatively insulated from downturns. This study shows that the relative quantity and quality of innovation declines more for VC-backed firms than for other types of firms during downturns.

- 13 Jan 2020
- Research & Ideas
Do Private Equity Buyouts Get a Bad Rap?
Elizabeth Warren calls private equity buyouts "Wall Street looting," but a recent study by Josh Lerner and colleagues shows they have both positive and negative impacts. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

- 05 Nov 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
The Economic Effects of Private Equity Buyouts
Private equity buyouts are a major financial enterprise that critics see as dominated by rent-seeking activities with little in the way of societal benefits. This study of 6,000 US buyouts between 1980 and 2013 finds that the real side effects of buyouts on target firms and their workers vary greatly by deal type and market conditions.

- 15 Jan 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
The Creation and Evolution of Entrepreneurial Public Markets
Since 1990, new stock exchanges geared toward fast-growing, entrepreneurial companies have proliferated around the world. This analysis shows that exchanges in countries with better shareholder protection allowed younger and less profitable companies to raise more capital. These markets alone cannot boost entrepreneurial activity but need enabling institutions.

- 04 Oct 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Corruption, Government Subsidies, and Innovation: Evidence from China
Governments subsidize a growing number of innovation efforts, many of which may face the challenge of corruption. Using Chinese data, this study finds corruption-related distortions in government R&D subsidies, which diminished after the 2012 anti-corruption campaign and rotation of provincial officials. It provide insights for designing effective R&D subsidy programs.

- 04 Sep 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Investing Outside the Box: Evidence from Alternative Vehicles in Private Capital
Private equity vehicles that differ from the traditional structure have become a major portion of investors’ portfolios, especially over the past decade. This study identifies differences in performance across limited and general partners participating in such vehicles, as well as across the two broad classes of alternative vehicles.

- 04 Sep 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Some Facts of High-Tech Patenting
This study details the growth of patenting in software, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and related technologies in the twenty-first century, and the continuing dominance of inventors in large US, Japanese, and Korean companies. Researchers still need to understand the impact of such trends on social welfare more generally.

- 12 Feb 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Private Equity, Jobs, and Productivity: Reply to Ayash and Rastad
In 2014, the authors published an influential analysis of private equity buyouts in the American Economic Review. Recently, economists Brian Ayash and Mahdi Rastad have challenged the accuracy of those findings. This new paper responds point by point to their critique, contending that it reflects a misunderstanding of the data and methodology behind the original study.
- 23 Jan 2018
- First Look
First Look at New Research and Ideas, January 23, 2018
Why is productivity declining? ... Angel investmernts around the world ... How do the children of employed moms turn out?

- 31 Oct 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
Mutual Funds as Venture Capitalists? Evidence from Unicorns
Larger mutual funds and those having more stable funding are more likely to invest in privately held startups known as unicorns. Mutual funds are less involved in corporate governance, especially boards of directors, but have more protections when it comes to liquidating their stakes.
- 31 Oct 2017
- First Look
New Research and Ideas, October 31, 2017
Mutual funds and unicorns ... Harvard’s investigation into a soccer scandal ... Business sustainability from a historical perspective.

- 04 Aug 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
Private Equity and Financial Fragility During the Crisis
Examining the activity of almost 500 private equity-backed companies during the 2008 financial crisis, this study finds that during a time in which capital formation dropped dramatically, PE-backed companies invested more aggressively than peer companies did. Results do not support the hypothesis that private equity contributed to the fragility of the economy during the recent financial crisis.

- 21 Nov 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Intellectual Property Rights Protection, Ownership, and Innovation: Evidence from China
As China’s top leaders promote innovation as the key to the country’s sustained economic growth, the extent to which the state can drive innovation without sound institutions and economic incentives remains in question. The evidence in this study of innovation and intellectual property rights (IPR) protection strongly supports the view that effective economic institutions matter, even in China. In order to successfully transition the country from a development model dependent on cheap labor and physical investments to one that is innovation-driven, these results suggest that the role of the private sector will be crucial. Private firms are more innovative both in terms of quantity and quality of patents, and are more so in cities with strong IPR protection.

- 01 Nov 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Patent Disclosures and Standard-Setting
Technological standards are a central component of the modern network economy. Standard setting organizations (SSOs) play a variety of roles. One of the most important is ensuring the disclosure of relevant intellectual property—in particular, potentially essential patents—prior to the key decisions about a proposed standard. This study finds that large downstream firms are more likely to make generic disclosures to SSOs. Higher quality patents are more likely to be disclosed via specific disclosures.

- 17 Aug 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Venture Capital Data: Opportunities and Challenges
Venture capital is a relatively small financial institution receiving a large amount of theoretical, empirical, policy, and media interest—perhaps because venture capital encompasses the extremes of corporate finance challenges: uncertainty, information asymmetry, and asset intangibility—and yet has been successful at growing many leading companies. This paper looks at the availability of information about venture capital. While it is it is difficult to paint in definitive terms the level of investment activity and fund performance, the quality of information available has increased in recent years and will likely continue to do so going forward.
- 18 Jul 2016
- Research & Ideas
Is Greed Ruining Private Equity Firms?
In a first-ever look at the internal economics driving private equity partnerships, Victoria Ivashina and Josh Lerner find that founding partners who take an unequal share of the pie can ruin their firms. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
The Color of Private Equity: Quantifying the Bias Black Investors Face
Prejudice persists in private equity, despite efforts to expand racial diversity in finance. Research by Josh Lerner sizes up the fundraising challenges and performance double standards that Black and Hispanic investors confront while trying to support other ventures—often minority-owned businesses.