Research
Abstract: This paper estimates the effect of Venture Capital (VC) on the diffusion of knowledge. I compare citations to patents invented by companies with VC investors to those of comparable patents invented elsewhere. To isolate the causal effect, I exploit time variation in the assets of state pension funds that allocate capital to VC. This variation provides a valid instrument if the effect of innovation opportunities within a state is uniform across local patents in the same technology-class and vintage-year. I find that after VC financing citations to a given patent increase 19% relative to the citations of comparable patents. Additional results are consistent with two mechanisms: VCs facilitate knowledge flows among their portfolio companies, and they certify the value of innovations to the general public.
Conference and seminars presentations:
"Bridges and Patents" (with Anna Tompsett)
This paper explores the concentration in geographical space of knowledge spillovers, as measured by patent citations. We construct a novel data-set of counties separated by rivers across the United States together, with information about the dates in which bridges were built along the rivers. Our empirical strategy estimates the increase in inter-county patent citations after a bridge is built between two counties, and relative to all other counties separated by rivers. To isolate a causal effect, we use the interaction between river width and price of steel as an exogenous determinant of bridge construction.
"Information, Credit and Investment" (with Daniel Osorio)
This paper explores a natural experiment to study the effect of public negative information about potential borrowers on access to credit and investment decisions. The experiment is made possible by the Colombian government's decision to erase public information on past delinquent borrowers in 2008. This change in the public credit registry is used to identify the effect on access to credit using a difference-in-differences methodology that compares potential borrowers whose negative information was erased from the public registry, with potential borrowers whose credit information was not affected by the law. For the sample of borrowers that are firms, we estimate the elasticity of investment to new credit.
"Long-run Effects of Venture Capital on Innovation" (with Morten Sorensen and Bruce Kogut)
"Venture Capital and Internal Labor Markets"
This paper explores the concentration in geographical space of knowledge spillovers, as measured by patent citations. We construct a novel data-set of counties separated by rivers across the United States together, with information about the dates in which bridges were built along the rivers. Our empirical strategy estimates the increase in inter-county patent citations after a bridge is built between two counties, and relative to all other counties separated by rivers. To isolate a causal effect, we use the interaction between river width and price of steel as an exogenous determinant of bridge construction.
"Information, Credit and Investment" (with Daniel Osorio)
This paper explores a natural experiment to study the effect of public negative information about potential borrowers on access to credit and investment decisions. The experiment is made possible by the Colombian government's decision to erase public information on past delinquent borrowers in 2008. This change in the public credit registry is used to identify the effect on access to credit using a difference-in-differences methodology that compares potential borrowers whose negative information was erased from the public registry, with potential borrowers whose credit information was not affected by the law. For the sample of borrowers that are firms, we estimate the elasticity of investment to new credit.
"Long-run Effects of Venture Capital on Innovation" (with Morten Sorensen and Bruce Kogut)
"Venture Capital and Internal Labor Markets"
Research in process