Benchmarking U.S. University Patent Value and Commercialization Efforts: A New Approach

Working Papers

University research-originated patented inventions are both becoming more numerous over time, and of higher “quality” as measured by standard social science metrics. Despite the significance of patented university research, it is difficult to observe the extent to which universities are able to capture the economic value from their patented inventions. Read More

Feedback and Contagion through Distressed Competition

Working Papers

Firms tend to compete on prices more aggressively when they are in financial distress; the intensified competition in turn reduces firms’ profit margins, pushing them further into distress. Competitors’ aggressive pricing reactions could be attributed to both predatory and self-defensive incentives.Read More

Organizational Change and the Dynamics of Innovation: Formal R&D Structure and Intrafirm Inventor Networks

Published Research

Prior research has argued and shown that firms with centralized R&D produce broader innovations relative to decentralized firms, but the organizational mechanisms underlying this relationship are underexplored. This gap limits our understanding of whether and how formal R&D structure can be used as a lever to influence research outcomes.Read More

Does Crowdfunding Benefit Entrepreneurs and Venture Capital Investors?

Published Research

We study how a new development in entrepreneurship—crowdfunding—interacts with more traditional financing sources, such as venture capital (VC) and bank financing. Read More

Data Analytics, Innovation, and Firm Productivity

Published Research

This study focuses on how data analytics talent in firms can have an effect on firms’ return on their technology investment. Especially with the rise of social media, cloud computing, as well as many other technologies that can capture detailed digital trace about various human interactions, we hope to understand how some firms can capture the value of the data and gain competitive advantage while some could not.Read More

Algorithmic Literacy in the Labor Market

Working Papers

Using data on employer job search, this study demonstrates that employers are seeking algorithmic literacy from workers in a particularly broad class of occupations because familiarity with algorithms in downstream “using” occupations is important for integrating AI and data science into production. Read More

Economics of Leveraged Buyouts: Theory and Evidence from the UK Private Equity Industry

Working Papers

Empirical analysis of a sample of companies with private equity (PE) ownership in the UK shows that PE firms act as deep-pocket investors for their portfolio companies, rescuing them if they fall in financial distress.Read More

Initial Coin Offerings, Speculators, and Asset Tokenization

Working Papers

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) are an emerging form of fundraising for blockchain-based startups. We examine how ICOs can be leveraged in the context of asset tokenization, whereby firms issue tokens backed by future assets (i.e., inventory) to finance growth.Read More

Physician-Industry Interactions: Persuasion and Welfare

Working Papers

In markets where consumers seek expert advice regarding purchases, firms seek to influence experts, raising concerns about biased advice. We combine a model of supply and demand with a local instrumental variables strategy based on regional spillovers from academic medical center conflict-of-interest policies. Read More

Star Developers and Open Source Software

Working Papers

The idea that source code for computer software be accessible to anyone has gained increasing popularity among software developers, fueling the rapid growth of the open source software (OSS) movement. Platforms for OSS development currently host incredibly valuable projects like the Linux kernel, TensorFlow and various blockchain software projects.Read More

Personal Wealth and Self-Employment

Working Papers

We examine how wealth windfalls affect self-employment decisions using data on cash payments from claims on Texas shale drilling to people throughout the United States. Individuals who receive large wealth shocks (greater than $50,000) have 51% higher self-employment rates.Read More

Artificial Intelligence and Drug Innovation: A Large Scale Examination of the Pharmaceutical Industry

Working Papers

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly important role in the global economy and has transformed many business practices. As AI has advanced beyond the conventionally narrow domains, it is starting to exhibit characteristics of “general purpose technologies (GPT)” that are expected to change the nature of more business innovations and reduce their associated financial costs and time.Read More

Intellectual Property Rights, Professional Business Services and Earnings Inequality

Working Papers

High skill labor demand is infrequent but firms cannot adjust perfectly due to several adjustment costs. Professional Business Services (PBS) sector help alleviate this problem by allowing high skill labor to move across firms, reducing idiosyncratic part of labor demand risk.Read More

Do Ratings Cut Both Ways? Impact of Bilateral Ratings on Platforms

Working Papers

Traditional online platforms (e.g., Amazon Marketplace) use Unilateral Rating System (URS), where customers rate sellers. However, sharing economy platforms (e.g., Uber, Airbnb) have adopted Bilateral Rating System (BRS) that also allows service providers to rate customers, and even selects customers based on their ratings.Read More

Regulating Innovation with Uncertain Quality: Information, Risk, and Access in Medical Devices

Published Research

We study the impact of regulating product entry and quality information requirements on an oligopoly equilibrium and consumer welfare. Product testing can reduce consumer uncertainty, but also increase entry costs and delay entry. Read More

Returns to Political Contributions in Housing Markets

Working Papers

This paper investigates whether firms donate to political campaigns in order to influence supply in local housing markets. Using new data on campaign donors of U.S. mayoral candidates and a regression discontinuity design, I uncover three findings. Consistent with political favors, connection to the mayor causes residential development firms to sell more new housing units.Read More

Internationalizing Firm Innovations: The Influence of Multimarket Overlap in Knowledge Activities

Published Research

This paper explores how multimarket overlap in knowledge activities influences firm decisions to internationalize their homecountry generated innovations.Read More

Risk Sharing Agreements for New Medical Treatments

Working Papers

The clinical-trial data used to make approval decisions for medical therapies are collected from a relatively small patient sub-populations. Given small sample sizes, trial data may suggest that treatments are medically or economically nonviable, even though they ultimately may be, or vice versa. Read More

Data Analytics Supports Decentralized Innovation

Published Research

Data-analytics technology can accelerate the innovation process by enabling existing knowledge to be identified, accessed, combined, and deployed to address new problem domains.Read More

The Employment Consequences of Robots: Firm-Level Evidence

Working Papers

As a new general-purpose technology, robots have the potential to radically transform industries and affect employment. Preliminary empirical studies using industry and geographic region-level data have shown that robots differ from prior general-purpose technologies and predict substantial negative effects on employment.Read More