No description available.

This dissertation examines three topics in macroeconomics. The first chapter studies the impact of severance payments on employment when firms can subcontract as a substitute for hiring workers. In countries with strict job security regulations firms use flexible staffing arrangements to buffer the regular workforce from economic fluctuations and avoid workers' firing costs. I set up a general equilibrium model in the tradition of Hopenhayn and Rogerson (1993) where firms can hire two types of workers: subcontractors that are totally flexible, and permanent workers that entail firing costs that increase with seniority in the job. Both types are perfect substitutes in production, but permanent workers are relatively less expensive as subcontractors' charges are higher than the firm's own production costs. I estimate the model using a simulated method of moments by fitting employment growth dynamics of Chilean manufacturing plants. I find that allowing firms to subcontract workers increases output, employment and productivity. This effect is stronger on output as subcontracted workers allow firms to respond more aggressively to productivity shocks, which enhances the allocation of labor across firms and hence total factor productivity (TFP). When firms can subcontract, the negative effects of firing costs are less than previously estimated in the literature. The second chapter analyzes the effects of capital adjustment costs on quantity dynamics and asset prices in a real business cycle model when the representative agent has Epstein-Zin preferences. Capital adjustment costs make it costly for agents to smooth fluctuations in consumption through the production sector, inducing them to take more consumption risk. I show this model accounts for the main statistical features of macroeconomic aggregate quantities. At the same time, adjustment costs increase the equity risk premium, with the mean stock return and its standard deviation in the order of magnitude consistent with the data. The model also produces a stable risk-free rate, and comes close to matching its average return. Finally, the third chapter (with Shuheng Lin) empirically examines the contribution of firm-level idiosyncratic shocks to aggregate fluctuations in the US, Germany, Canada, and the UK. We find shocks to large firms are of little relevance in the UK or Canada, but roughly explain one third of output fluctuations in the US and Germany. We argue the ability of the largest firms to transmit shocks is not universal, even when the firm size distribution is highly skewed as the theory suggests (Gabaix, 2011).

Cette thèse contribue à la littérature théorique et empirique concernant l’hétérogénéité des entreprises et le commerce international. La partie théorique analyse les conséquences de la libéralisation du commerce lorsque les entreprises sont hétérogènes et les pays asymétriques. La partie empirique discute le sens de causalité de la relation entre la performance des entreprises et leur statut international. Les entreprises sont-elles plus performantes parce qu’elles exportent et/ou importent ? Ou sont-ce les entreprises les plus performantes qui s’auto-sélectionnent sur le marché international ? Les deux hypothèses ne s’excluent pas mutuellement et ce travail les accrédite toutes deux. / This thesis contributes to both theoretical and empirical aspects of the literature on firm heterogeneity in international trade. On the theoretical side, I provide insights of the consequences of trade liberalisation when firms are heterogeneous and countries are asymmetric. On the empirical side, I discuss the causality of the relationship between performances and trading status of firms. Do more productive firms self-select into international markets? Do firms become more productive because they enter international markets? These hypotheses are not mutually exclusive and my work provides support for both of them.

The three chapters of my dissertation study imperfect competition, multiproduct firms, and consumer demand. Chapter 1 estimates a structural model of consumer demand and oligopolistic retail competition in order to study three mechanisms through which retailers affect allocative efficiency and consumer welfare. First, variable markups across retail stores within a location induce a misallocation of resources. The deadweight loss from this retail misallocation can be large since a significant fraction of household consumption comes from retail goods. Second, across locations, retail markups may vary with market size. This regional variation plays an important role in recent economic geography models as an agglomeration force. In the limit, models predict that the distortion from variable markups disappears in large markets, although it is an open question, How Large is Large? Third, since retail stores are differentiated, differences in the variety of retail stores available to consumers matters for consumer welfare across locations. To quantify the importance of these mechanisms, I estimate my model using retail scanner data with prices and sales at the barcode level from thousands of stores across the US. I find that the deadweight loss and consumption misallocation from variable retail markups are economically significant. I estimate that retail markups are smaller in larger cities, and that markets the size of New York City and Los Angeles are approximately at the undistorted monopolistically competitive limit. My results show that retail store variety significantly impacts the cost of living and could be an important consumption-based agglomeration force. The second chapter of my dissertation develops and structurally estimates a model of heterogeneous multiproduct firms that can be used to decompose the firm-size distribution into the contributions of costs, quality, markups, and product scope. In this joint work with Stephen J. Redding and David E. Weinstein, we find that variation in firm quality and product scope explains at least four fifths of the variation in firm sales using Nielsen barcode data on prices and sales. We show that the imperfect substitutability of products within firms, and the fact that larger firms supply more products than smaller firms, implies that standard productivity measures are not independent of demand system assumptions and probably dramatically understate the relative productivity of the largest firms. Although most firms are well approximated by the monopolistic competition benchmark of constant markups, we find that the largest firms that account for most of aggregate sales depart substantially from this benchmark, and exhibit both variable markups and substantial cannibalization effects. The final chapter of my dissertation develops a new integrable demand system, called the Doubly-Translated CDES demand system, which is well suited to theoretical and empirical work. Commonly used analytically and computationally tractable demand systems severely restrict key properties of demand, which parametrically pins down the answers to many important economic questions. The Doubly-Translated CDES demand system is flexible in important ways that common demand systems are not, while maintaining effective global regularity and global consistency. Using data, I provide examples of this demand system's flexibility by calibrating different parameter values. I discuss how this demand system can be estimated with regularity imposed and correcting for the endogeneity of prices using constrained Nonlinear GMM.

Family in business and innovation are considered vital for firm performance and economic growth. Scholars claim that studying this relationship is important, as there are ‘strong theoretical reasons’ to believe that a firm’s innovation, hence firm performance, is positively and/or negatively influenced by the family. Research on the interception of the two fields is growing in developed countries, but is still nascent in developing country contexts. Hence, this study seeks to explore and further existing knowledge on this relationship in such a context. This investigation’ explores how family influences the firm’s innovation activities. It explores particularly the concept of ‘familiness’, which depicts those resources unique to a firm due to the involvement of the family members. Two approaches to ‘familiness’ are adopted, dimensions and resources. Concerning dimensions, three characteristics: components of involvement, essence and organisational identity were explored. The resources approach in this study includes four elements: financial, physical, human and social. In addition to this, the positive or negative nature of the family influence on each resource is considered. These two approaches of ‘familiness’ serves as the theoretical lens for understanding innovation comprehensively by taking into account the types, magnitudes, strategies and sources. This study adopted a qualitative approach to explore this phenomenon. Data were collected from six Colombian family firms through a self-administered questionnaire, followed by in-depth semi-structured interviews with family and nonfamily members in the form of a multi-case study design within purposefully selected firms. Triangulation was achieved by using different sources of information, such as documents, catalogues, newspapers, websites, and academic case studies. Due to the deductive and inductive nature of this study, data were explored and thematically analysed by coding into pre-existing categories suggested by the initial conceptual framework, while new themes emerged from the data. Results showed that when all three ‘familiness’ dimensions are present, there is an impact on the innovation activities within family firms. With respect to resources, the study highlighted the importance of the family influence on the firm’s human resource, and its impact on organisational innovation. This is particular the case when non-family members are more involved in top management teams. An intriguing finding is the relationship between the family’s foreign background and its influence of the firm’s overall innovation activities. In addition to this, by viewing the findings in this study as a whole, it is demonstrated that family firms in developing countries are innovative, which is contrary to existing studies on this subject area. Furthermore, it is advocated that this phenomenon would be better understood and further captured through the entrepreneurship lens. Hence, this is in line with recent views calling for a closer interception of family business and entrepreneurship. This study addresses these issues by weaving in Schumpeter’s ‘creative destruction’ and Kirzner’s ‘entrepreneurial discovery’ approaches to innovation to reconciliate inconsistent findings in the field of ‘innovation and family firms’. This is due to all firm’s engaging in innovative activities in an incremental (Kirznerian) nature, as opposed to a ‘radical’ (Schumpeterian) one, whereby the latter has been the main focus of previous studies. This thesis advocates the need for public and private institutions to implement family business and innovation courses at various levels throughout the country, in order to enable young generations to be expose to the challenges and opportunities that globalisation brings to developing economies. The study highlights the importance of exploring this phenomenon using the family itself as the unit of analysis, as opposed to the firm, in order to move the field forwards. Future research should test the conceptual framework that emerged from this study, both qualitatively and quantitatively, in family firms from other industries, and context within Latin America or beyond.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2006. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Study based on data derived from a sampling of 189 large U.S. law firms. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-101). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This thesis aims at analysing some aspects of Venture Capital (VC) and high-tech entrepreneurship. The focus is both at the macroeconomic level, comparing venture capital from an international point of view and Technology-Based Small Firms (TBSF) at company and founder’s level in Belgium. The approach is mainly empirical. This work is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on venture capital. First of all, we test the impact of VC on productivity. We then identify the determinants of VC and we test their impact on the relative level of VC for a panel of countries. The second part concerns the technology-based small firms in Belgium. The objective is twofold. It first aims at creating a database on Belgian TBSF to better understand the importance of entrepreneurship. In order to do this, a national survey was developed and the statistical results were analysed. Secondly, it provides an analysis of the role of universities in the employment performance of TBSF. A broad summary of each chapter is presented below. PART 1: VENTURE CAPITAL The Economic Impact of Venture Capital The objective of this chapter is to perform an evaluation of the macroeconomic impact of venture capital. The main assumption is that VC can be considered as being similar in several respects to business R&D performed by large firms. We test whether VC contributes to economic growth through two main channels. The first one is innovation, characterized by the introduction of new products, processes or services on the market. The second one is the development of an absorptive capacity. These hypotheses are tested quantitatively with a production function model for a panel data set of 16 OECD countries from 1990 to 2001. The results show that the accumulation of VC is a significant factor contributing directly to Multi-Factor Productivity (MFP) growth. The social rate of return to VC is significantly higher than the social rate of return to business or public R&D. VC has also an indirect impact on MFP in the sense that it improves the output elasticity of R&D. An increased VC intensity makes it easier to absorb the knowledge generated by universities and firms, and therefore improves aggregate economic performance. Technological Opportunity, Entrepreneurial Environment and Venture Capital Development The objective of this chapter is to identify the main determinants of venture capital. We develop a theoretical model where three main types of factors affect the demand and supply of VC: macroeconomic conditions, technological opportunity, and the entrepreneurial environment. The model is evaluated with a panel dataset of 16 OECD countries over the period 1990-2000. The estimates show that VC intensity is pro-cyclical - it reacts positively and significantly to GDP growth. Interest rates affect the VC intensity mainly because the entrepreneurs create a demand for this type of funding. Indicators of technological opportunity such as the stock of knowledge and the number of triadic patents affect positively and significantly the relative level of VC. Labour market rigidities reduce the impact of the GDP growth rate and of the stock of knowledge, whereas a minimum level of entrepreneurship is required in order to have a positive effect of the available stock of knowledge on VC intensity. PART 2: TECHNOLOGY-BASED SMALL FIRMS Survey in Belgium The first purpose of this chapter is to present the existing literature on the performance of companies. In order to get a quantitative insight into the entrepreneurial growth process, an original survey of TBSF in Belgium was launched in 2002. The second purpose is to describe the methodology of our national TBSF survey. This survey has two main merits. The first one lies in the quality of the information. Indeed, most of national and international surveys have been developed at firm-level. There exist only a few surveys at founder-level. In the TBSF database, information both at firm and at entrepreneur-level will be found. The second merit is about the subject covered. TBSF survey tackles the financing of firms (availability of public funds, role of venture capitalists, availability of business angels,…), the framework conditions (e.g. the quality and availability of infrastructures and communication channels, the level of academic and public research, the patenting process,…) and, finally, the socio-cultural factors associated with the entrepreneurs and their environment (e.g. level of education, their parents’education, gender,…). Statistical Evidence The main characteristics of companies in our sample are that employment and profits net of taxation do not follow the same trend. Indeed, employment may decrease while results after taxes may stay constant. Only a few companies enjoy a growth in both employment and results after taxes between 1998 and 2003. On the financing front, our findings suggest that internal finance in the form of personal funds, as well as the funds of family and friends are the primary source of capital to start-up a high-tech company in Belgium. Entrepreneurs rely on their own personal savings in 84 percent of the cases. Commercial bank loans are the secondary source of finance. This part of external financing (debt-finance) exceeds the combined angel funds and venture capital funds (equity-finance). On the entrepreneur front, the preliminary results show that 80 percent of entrepreneurs in this study have a university degree while 42 percent hold postgraduate degrees (i.e. master’s, and doctorate). In term of research activities, 88 percent of the entrepreneurs holding a Ph.D. or a post-doctorate collaborate with Belgian higher education institutes. Moreover, more than 90 percent of these entrepreneurs are working in a university spin-off. The Contribution of Universities to Employment Growth The objective of this chapter is to test whether universities play a role amongst the determinants of employment growth in Belgian TBSF. The empirical model is based on our original survey of 87 Belgian TBSF. The results suggest that both academic spin-offs and TBSF created on the basis of an idea originating from business R&D activities are associated with an above than average growth in employees. As most ‘high-tech’ entrepreneurs are at least graduated from universities, there is no significant impact of the level of education. Nevertheless, these results must be taken with caution, as they are highly sensitive to the presence of outliers. Young high-tech firms are by definition highly volatile, and might be therefore difficult to understand. CONCLUSION In this last chapter, recommendations for policy-makers are drawn from the results of the thesis. The possible interventions of governments are classified according to whether they influence the demand or the supply of entrepreneurship and/or VC. We present some possible actions such as direct intervention in the VC funds, interventions of public sector through labour market rigidities, pension system, patent and research policy, level of entrepreneurial activities, bankruptcy legislation, entrepreneurial education, development of university spin-offs, and creation of a national database of TBSF.

Innovation and commercialization are crucial for the competitiveness and economic well-being of countries. Despite the importance of innovation, recent studies have showed that Canada is lagging behind other countries in terms of its innovation and commercialization performance. The claim is often made that Canada performs well in generating the knowledge needed for innovation; however, the problem lies in transforming this knowledge into commercial success. Thus, a major preoccupation is how to turnaround this weak commercialization performance. Despite the wide range of programs, policies and regulations implemented by the Canadian Government along with its provincial counterparts to engender a turnaround, little has changed in Canada’s commercialization performance. Therefore, the search for solutions continues. Given that commercialization takes place at the firm-level, this study will explore the relationship between firm-size and commercialization. Several existing studies have examined the link between innovation and firm size, but few have examined the link between commercialization and firm size. Despite the arguments supporting medium-sized firms’ ability to commercialize innovations, there is a weak empirical base that explores the position of Canadian medium-sized firms and their innovation and commercialization capabilities. This study will contribute to the existing knowledge by covering the gap in the literature concerning the role of medium-sized firms in commercialization, compared to small and large firms. This study provides evidence suggesting that small and medium-sized firms should be considered differently.

Innovation and commercialization are crucial for the competitiveness and economic well-being of countries. Despite the importance of innovation, recent studies have showed that Canada is lagging behind other countries in terms of its innovation and commercialization performance. The claim is often made that Canada performs well in generating the knowledge needed for innovation; however, the problem lies in transforming this knowledge into commercial success. Thus, a major preoccupation is how to turnaround this weak commercialization performance. Despite the wide range of programs, policies and regulations implemented by the Canadian Government along with its provincial counterparts to engender a turnaround, little has changed in Canada’s commercialization performance. Therefore, the search for solutions continues. Given that commercialization takes place at the firm-level, this study will explore the relationship between firm-size and commercialization. Several existing studies have examined the link between innovation and firm size, but few have examined the link between commercialization and firm size. Despite the arguments supporting medium-sized firms’ ability to commercialize innovations, there is a weak empirical base that explores the position of Canadian medium-sized firms and their innovation and commercialization capabilities. This study will contribute to the existing knowledge by covering the gap in the literature concerning the role of medium-sized firms in commercialization, compared to small and large firms. This study provides evidence suggesting that small and medium-sized firms should be considered differently.

El propósito de esta investigación es estudiar las intenciones de crecimiento de las empresas de nuevos empresarios en una economía en transformación. Para ello se examina el caso concreto de Rumania. El estudio encuentra evidencia a favor de la existencia de 1) dos dimensiones conceptuales asociadas con las fuerzas socio-culturales que dan forma a la transición económica y política del país y 2) los conceptos teóricos asociados con el crecimiento y desarrollo socio-económico basado en la creación de empresas. Para ser específicos, la tesis investiga las relaciones entre la creación de empresas, la dinámica familiar y el desarrollo de las empresas privadas durante la transición socio-económica que ha tenido lugar en Rumania.La pregunta de investigación es la siguiente: "¿Cuáles son los niveles y los planes específicos de expansión entre los nuevos empresarios en Rumania, una nación del antiguo bloque soviético?; ¿Cuáles son las variables que predicen estos planes de expansión y cómo el sistema de valores del entorno social y la familia, especialmente, afectan a estos planes de crecimiento?El objetivo de esta investigación es examinar con detalle las dimensiones individuales, grupales y del entorno que tienen un impacto en el desarrollo de las nuevas empresas a través de los planes de crecimiento y desarrollo de los empresarios. Los objetivos específicos, entonces, son los siguientes: 1) identificar los planes de crecimiento de las nuevas empresas que los empresarios quieren poner en marcha, 2) determinar los niveles de intensidad con los cuales los empresarios desean aplicar sus planes de crecimiento y 3) investigar el impacto que la dinámica familiar tiene en las intenciones de crecimiento planificadas.En primer lugar se desarrolla un modelo teórico multidimensional acerca de los predoctores de los planes de expansión. Concretamente, se identifica un conjunto de variables y su relación con los planes de expansión de los empresarios. Tres dimensiones teóricas forman el modelo predictivo: 1) variables a nivel micro relacionadas con la personalidad del empresario, 2) variables a nivel intermedio relacionadas con la dinámica social, especialmente la familiar y 3) variables a nivel macro relacionadas con el entorno en el cual el empresario desarrolla su labor.Los resultados de una encuesta realizada a 410 empresario rumanos es utilizada para poner a prueba el modelo teórico multidimensional. Los datos fueron recogidos a partir de la encuesta del 'perfil del empresario' que ha sido utilizada en Europa, Asia y América. La muestra incluye una gran variedad de grupos industriales y es muy rica en detalles acerca del comportamiento del empresario. Para su análisis se ha utilizado una combinación de técnicas multivariantes de investigación que han permitido obtener las dimensiones teóricas no observables a partir de los indicadores suministrados por la muestra y después analizar las relaciones establecidas. / The focus of this study is to investigate the entrepreneurial growth intentions and expansion plans of new entrepreneurs in a transforming economy. As a focused method of investigation one country, Romania is examined. The study probes both the conceptual dimensions associated with the socio-cultural forces shaping transition, and the theoretical concepts associated with entrepreneurial centered socio-economic growth and development. Specifically the dissertation investigates the relationships between entrepreneurship, family dynamics and private enterprise development during socio-economic transition in Romania.The general research question posed is "What are the levels, and specific types of expansion plans found among new entrepreneurs in the former Soviet Bloc nation of Romania; what are the predictors of these expansion plans; and how do the environmental value systems and family dynamics impact planned growth?"The objective of this study is to examine thoroughly the different individual, group and environmental dimensions which impact entrepreneurial venture development via planned growth intentions and expansion plans. The study's central objectives are to 1) to identify what types of planned growth initiatives entrepreneurs intend to pursue, 2) to ascertain the levels of intensity entrepreneurs have towards planned growth, and 3) to investigate the impact family dynamics have on planned growth intentions.A theoretical multidimensional model of the predictors of expansion plans is developed. Specifically, a set of exogenous variables comprising a sequence of relationships are hypothesized to be related to entrepreneurial expansion plans. Three dimensions comprise the predictive model; 1) Micro level variables associated with the entrepreneur's personality, 2) Intermediate level variables related to societal dynamics, including family involvement and 3) Macro level variables affiliated with the comprehensive environment entrepreneurs operate in.The results of a survey of 410 Romanian entrepreneurs is used to test the multidimensional model. Data has been collected via the Entrepreneurial Profile Questionnaire which has been validated in Europe, Asia, and North and South America. The sample includes a rich cross section across a variety of industrial groups. Data is analyzed using a combination of descriptive and relational research techniques. A series of multivariate statistical procedures is employed to analyze the data and test the multidimensional model.