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<p>This dissertation examines the implications of digitization for firm corporate strategy and organizational governance. I aim to link together emerging research on platform businesses and classic corporate strategy research on firm scale, scope and organization, two important streams of work that have remained largely independent despite the close connection between them. To do so, my dissertation revolves around the following central question: How can platform owners leverage governance mechanisms to alleviate market frictions, and what are the performance outcomes? </p><p><br></p> <p>In the first chapter, using game-theoretic formal models, I analyze how long standing information frictions are alleviated by digital platforms through developing capabilities for solving these information problems and exploiting synergies between those capabilities. In the second chapter, using data from online peer-to-peer lending, I show that platform owners can mitigate problems of information asymmetry in platform markets and enhance market effectiveness through allocation of key decision rights among participants. Finally, in the third chapter, using data from mobile apps, I show that platform gatekeeping serves as a screening mechanism for platform owners and how it can shape the different ways app developers profit from innovation. </p><p><br></p><p>Collectively, my dissertation aims to advance corporate strategy research in two ways. First, my research broadens the application of theories of organizational governance core to corporate strategy to a new organizational form – platforms – and I show that core tenets of the theories still apply, although the specific empirical mechanisms might take a different form in the platform context (e.g., decision rights allocated between the platform owner and complementors, rather than between the corporate office and business units). Second, my research stands to expand existing theories in corporate strategy through a sharp focus on organization and governance features that are unique to platforms – such as by studying the orchestrating role of the platform owner (e.g., through gatekeeping, platform owner can control complementors' platform access and shape their value-creation activities on the platform), and the multi-layer relationships prevalent in platforms (e.g., relationships between the platform owner and complementors, between complementors on the same side, and between complementors across two or more sides).</p>

This dissertation consists of three essays on firm finances and macroeconomics. In Chapter 1, I empirically investigate the relationship between firms' financial positions and asset tangibility by drawing on a CRSP/Compustat merged dataset of US public firms from 1987 to 2016. Intangible capital has grown in importance as the US economy has evolved towards service-based and technology-based industries with a decline in the physical capital share. Intangible capital spending is a type of capital expenditure that is not negligible compared to physical capital investment. The key finding of my empirical exercise is that industries and firms with lower average asset tangibility have lower average debt-to-sales ratios and higher average values of distance-to-default both in the long run and short run. Asset tangibility is a proxy for the recovery rate of capital since intangible capital is considered less valuable collateral, so the empirical evidence suggests that the recovery rate of capital is related to borrowing and default. Chapter 2 structurally estimates the recovery rate of capital, which is difficult to observe in the data, and quantitatively analyzes the aggregate implications of the empirical findings in the previous chapter. The recovery rate of capital determines lenders' credit supply and affects the demand and total credit amounts in equilibrium. Recent rising intangibles in the US may reduce recovery. I build a canonical quantitative general equilibrium heterogeneous firm model with risky debt, capital accumulation, and default. I estimate the model parameters by matching the covariance matrix of profit, investment, and debt, the average spread, and the average default rate in my data sample. The simulated method of moments (SMM) estimate of the recovery rate is 74% when targeting moments constructed with only physical capital. The counterfactuals reveal that declines in the recovery rate reduce aggregate output, credit, and welfare by constraining capital accumulation. Tackling intangibles by a broader notion of capital, I estimate a recovery rate of 46% with the same model structure, implying that rising intangibles could cause nontrivial output and welfare losses due to financial frictions. Chapter 3 examines the causal effect of immigration on local entrepreneurship in US counties. I use the immigration shock constructed in Burchardi et al. (2020) as an instrumental variable to predict the total number of migrants flowing into each US county from 1990 to 2010. I use the entrepreneurship indices from the Startup Cartography Project (Andrews et al., 2020) to measure the quantity and quality of US start-ups at the county-level. First, I find a strong and significant causal impact of immigration on the number of new business registrants per person. Second, I find a significant causal impact of immigration on the expected number of start-ups with growth per person. I also show that the influx of immigrants can increase the local average wage per capita. To interpret these empirical findings, I build a model of entrepreneurship which implies that if immigration shifts the distribution of entrepreneurial acumen to the right, it increases the wage rate, the fraction of entrepreneurs, and the mean quality of entrepreneurs. These results suggest that immigration is an essential driver of economic dynamism via entrepreneurship.

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Cette thèse examine les effets des imperfections des marchés financiers sur la macroéconomie. Plus particulièrement, elle se penche sur les conséquences de la faillite dans les contrats financiers dans une perspective d'équilibre général dynamique. Le premier papier construit un modèle qui utilise l'avantage comparatif des banques dans la gestion des situations de détresse financière pour expliquer le choix des firmes entre les prêts bancaires et les prêts du marché financier. Le modèle réussit à expliquer pourquoi les firmes plus petites préfèrent le financement bancaire et pourquoi les prêts bancaires sont plus répandus en Europe. Le premier fait est expliqué par le lien négatif entre la valeur nette de l'entreprise et la probabilité de faire faillite. Le deuxième fait s'explique par le coût fixe d'émission de bons plus élevé en Europe. Le deuxième papier examine l'interaction entre les contraintes de financement affectant les ménages et les firmes. Une interaction positive pourrait amplifier et augmenter la persistance de l'effet d'un choc agrégé sur l'économie. Je construis un nouveau modèle qui contient des primes de financement externes pour les firmes et les ménages. Dans le modèle de base avec prix et salaires flexibles, j'obtiens une faible interaction négative entre les coûts de financement des firmes et des ménages. Le facteur clé qui explique ce résultat est l'effet du changement contre cyclique du coût de financement des ménages sur leur offre de travail et leur demande de prêts. Dans une période d'expansion, cet effet augmente les taux d'intérêt, réduit l'investissement et augmente le coût de financement des entreprises. Le troisième papier ajoute les contraintes de financement des banques dans un modèle macroéconomiques avec des prêts hypothécaires et des fluctuations dans les prix de l'immobilier. Les banques dans le modèle ne peuvent pas complètement diversifier leurs prêts, ce qui génère un lien entre les risques de faillite des ménages et des banques. Il y a deux effets contraires des cycles économiques qui affectent la prime de financement externe de la banque. Premièrement, il y a un lien positif entre le risque de faillite des banques et des emprunteurs qui contribue à rendre le coût de financement externe des banques contre cyclique. Deuxiément, le lissage de la consommation par les ménages rend la proportion de financement externe des banques pro cyclique, ce qui tend à rendre le coût de financement bancaire pro cyclique. En combinant ces deux effets, le modèle peut reproduire des profits bancaires et des ratios d'endettement bancaires pro cycliques comme dans les données, mais pour des chocs non-financiers les frictions de financement bancaire dans le modèle n'ont pas un effet quantitativement significatif sur les principales variables agrégées comme la consommation ou l'investissement. / This Dissertation examines the effect of financial market imperfections on the Macroeconomy. More particularly, it focuses on the consequences of equilibrium default using a Dynamic General Equilibrium approach. The first paper builds a dynamic general equilibrium model that emphasizes banks' comparative advantage in monitoring financial distress in order to explain firms' choice between bank loans and market debt. Banks can deal with financial distress more cheaply than bond holders, but this requires a higher initial expenditure proportional to the loan size. In contrast, bond issues may involve a small fixed cost. Entrepreneurs' choice of bank or bond financing depends on their net worth. The model can explain why smaller firms tend to use more bank financing and why bank financing is more prevalent in Europe than in the US. The first fact can be explained by the negative link between the net worth of a business and its default probability. Explaining the second fact requires taking into account the higehr fixed cost of issuing market debt in Europe. The second paper examines the possibility of feedback effects between between the financing constraints of households and of firms. A positive interaction between the financial strength of household and firm balance sheets may amplify aggregate shocks and increase the persistence of aggregate fluctuations. I develop a new model that incorporates both firm and household external finance spreads and time varying leverage. Contrary to a common intuition, the baseline Real Business Cycle model with credit constraints produces a small negative interaction between the costs of external financing for firms and households. The key factor in this result is the effect of changes in the external finance premium on borrowers' labour supply and the demand for loans. The reduction in households' cost of borrowing in a boom decreases labour supply and raises houshold loan demand. This increases interest rates, crowds out investment, and raises borrowing costs for financially constrained firms. The third paper integrates household financing frictions with bank financing frictions and house price fluctuations in a dynamic general equilibrium model. The key assumption in the model is that a bank cannot fully diversify shocks, leading to a link between household and bank sectors' default risks. The cyclical behaviour of banks' external funding cost is determined by two main factors. On one hand, booms improve the financial health of the banks' borrowers which tends to reduce the cost of bank funding. On the other hand, consumption smoothing by savers and borrowers during booms increases the proportion of external financing in the banks' balance sheet which tends to increase the cost of bank funding. As a result of these opposing effects, the model matches procyclical profits and leverage in the financial sector, as observed in the data, but for non financial shocks the banking frictions in the model have an insignificant impact on the main macroeconomic aggregates such as output, consumption and investment.

Cette thèse examine les effets des imperfections des marchés financiers sur la macroéconomie. Plus particulièrement, elle se penche sur les conséquences de la faillite dans les contrats financiers dans une perspective d'équilibre général dynamique. Le premier papier construit un modèle qui utilise l'avantage comparatif des banques dans la gestion des situations de détresse financière pour expliquer le choix des firmes entre les prêts bancaires et les prêts du marché financier. Le modèle réussit à expliquer pourquoi les firmes plus petites préfèrent le financement bancaire et pourquoi les prêts bancaires sont plus répandus en Europe. Le premier fait est expliqué par le lien négatif entre la valeur nette de l'entreprise et la probabilité de faire faillite. Le deuxième fait s'explique par le coût fixe d'émission de bons plus élevé en Europe. Le deuxième papier examine l'interaction entre les contraintes de financement affectant les ménages et les firmes. Une interaction positive pourrait amplifier et augmenter la persistance de l'effet d'un choc agrégé sur l'économie. Je construis un nouveau modèle qui contient des primes de financement externes pour les firmes et les ménages. Dans le modèle de base avec prix et salaires flexibles, j'obtiens une faible interaction négative entre les coûts de financement des firmes et des ménages. Le facteur clé qui explique ce résultat est l'effet du changement contre cyclique du coût de financement des ménages sur leur offre de travail et leur demande de prêts. Dans une période d'expansion, cet effet augmente les taux d'intérêt, réduit l'investissement et augmente le coût de financement des entreprises. Le troisième papier ajoute les contraintes de financement des banques dans un modèle macroéconomiques avec des prêts hypothécaires et des fluctuations dans les prix de l'immobilier. Les banques dans le modèle ne peuvent pas complètement diversifier leurs prêts, ce qui génère un lien entre les risques de faillite des ménages et des banques. Il y a deux effets contraires des cycles économiques qui affectent la prime de financement externe de la banque. Premièrement, il y a un lien positif entre le risque de faillite des banques et des emprunteurs qui contribue à rendre le coût de financement externe des banques contre cyclique. Deuxiément, le lissage de la consommation par les ménages rend la proportion de financement externe des banques pro cyclique, ce qui tend à rendre le coût de financement bancaire pro cyclique. En combinant ces deux effets, le modèle peut reproduire des profits bancaires et des ratios d'endettement bancaires pro cycliques comme dans les données, mais pour des chocs non-financiers les frictions de financement bancaire dans le modèle n'ont pas un effet quantitativement significatif sur les principales variables agrégées comme la consommation ou l'investissement. / This Dissertation examines the effect of financial market imperfections on the Macroeconomy. More particularly, it focuses on the consequences of equilibrium default using a Dynamic General Equilibrium approach. The first paper builds a dynamic general equilibrium model that emphasizes banks' comparative advantage in monitoring financial distress in order to explain firms' choice between bank loans and market debt. Banks can deal with financial distress more cheaply than bond holders, but this requires a higher initial expenditure proportional to the loan size. In contrast, bond issues may involve a small fixed cost. Entrepreneurs' choice of bank or bond financing depends on their net worth. The model can explain why smaller firms tend to use more bank financing and why bank financing is more prevalent in Europe than in the US. The first fact can be explained by the negative link between the net worth of a business and its default probability. Explaining the second fact requires taking into account the higehr fixed cost of issuing market debt in Europe. The second paper examines the possibility of feedback effects between between the financing constraints of households and of firms. A positive interaction between the financial strength of household and firm balance sheets may amplify aggregate shocks and increase the persistence of aggregate fluctuations. I develop a new model that incorporates both firm and household external finance spreads and time varying leverage. Contrary to a common intuition, the baseline Real Business Cycle model with credit constraints produces a small negative interaction between the costs of external financing for firms and households. The key factor in this result is the effect of changes in the external finance premium on borrowers' labour supply and the demand for loans. The reduction in households' cost of borrowing in a boom decreases labour supply and raises houshold loan demand. This increases interest rates, crowds out investment, and raises borrowing costs for financially constrained firms. The third paper integrates household financing frictions with bank financing frictions and house price fluctuations in a dynamic general equilibrium model. The key assumption in the model is that a bank cannot fully diversify shocks, leading to a link between household and bank sectors' default risks. The cyclical behaviour of banks' external funding cost is determined by two main factors. On one hand, booms improve the financial health of the banks' borrowers which tends to reduce the cost of bank funding. On the other hand, consumption smoothing by savers and borrowers during booms increases the proportion of external financing in the banks' balance sheet which tends to increase the cost of bank funding. As a result of these opposing effects, the model matches procyclical profits and leverage in the financial sector, as observed in the data, but for non financial shocks the banking frictions in the model have an insignificant impact on the main macroeconomic aggregates such as output, consumption and investment.

L'objectif sous-jacent aux trois chapitres qui composent cette thèse est la compréhension du fonctionnement du marché du travail, afin d'établir un diagnostic quant au rôle de régulation potentiel d'une autorité publique dans ce marché. Dans le premier chapitre, j'analyse, d'un point de vue purement "positif", la capacité du modèle avec frictions d'appariement à répliquer les fluctuations de court terme de variables du marché du travail aux États-Unis. Je propose une nouvelle stratégie de calibration, dans le cadre d'analyse est celui d'un modèle de fluctuations avec rigidité de prix. Dans le deuxième chapitre (co-écrit avec F. Langot), nous étudions les déterminants des évolutions de l'offre de travail sur les cinquante dernières années. L'évolution du coin fiscal, ainsi que de deux variables reflétant le cadre institutionnel (la générosité du revenu en cas de "non-emploi" et le pouvoir de négociation des travailleurs), permettent d'expliquer les différentes trajectoires du taux d'emploi et des heures travaillées observées aux États-Unis et dans trois économies européennes (France, Allemagne et Royaume-Uni). Dans le troisième chapitre, j'analyse la performance de deux systèmes alternatifs de sécurité sociale, dans le cadre d'un modèle avec agents hétérogènes en termes de richesse. Les agents sont soumis à un risque de chômage, et le planificateur peut fournir de l'assurance à travers un système fiscal redistributif, basé sur une taxe progressive et/ou l'assurance chômage. Le système fiscal progressif est supérieur, en termes de bien-être agrégé, à l'assurance fournie à travers des allocations chômage, à travers son effet sur le fonctionnement du marché du travail. / The objective underlying the three chapters of this thesis is the understanding of the functioning of the labor market to make a diagnosis about the potential regulatory role of a public authority in this market. ln the first chapter, I analyze, from a purely "positive" point of view, the ability of the model with search and matching frictions to reproduce short-term fluctuations of labor market variables in the United States. I propose a new calibration strategy, within a general equilibrium framework with sticky prices. In the second chapter (co-written with F. Langot), we study the determinants of changes in the labor supply over the last fifty years. Changes in the tax wedge, and two variables reflecting the institutional framework (the generosity of income in case of "non-employment" and workers' bargaining power), can explain the different trajectories of the rate employment and hours worked observed in the United States and three European economies (France, Germany and the United Kingdom). ln the third chapter, I analyze the performance of two alternative systems of social security, within the framework of a model with heterogeneous agents in terms of wealth. The agents are subject to a risk of unemployment, and the planner can provide insurance through a redistibutive tax system, based on a progressive tax and / or unemployment insurance. The progressive tax system is superior in terms of aggregate welfare to the insurance provided through unemployment benefits, through its effect on the functioning of the labor market.

La mondialisation financière des dernières décennies témoigne du phénomène du déséquilibre mondial dans lequel les comptes déficitaires actuels de certaines grandes économies avancées sont continuellement financés par certains pays en développement avec des taux de croissance élevés et des stocks de capitaux rares. Sur le plan théorique, le modèle de croissance néoclassique implique qu’une économie avec une pénurie de capitaux aurait un produit marginal élevé de capital et un taux d’intérêt élevé d’autarcie. Par conséquent, lors de l’intégration avec la capitale mobile gratuite, ce pays éprouverait les entrées nettes de capitaux nets afin que le taux d’intérêt domestique soit égal au reste du taux mondial (Lucas 1990). De plus, une économie qui se développe plus rapidement que le reste du monde aurait également une demande d’investissement plus élevée et devrait connaître les entrées de capitaux totaux nets (Gourinchas and Jeanne 2013). Les déséquilibres mondiaux sont le résultat de l’hétérogénéité des tendances de l’épargne et des investissements dans tous les pays. En effet, un pays connaît un apport de capitaux si son économie est inférieure à son investissement : ce pays emprunte au reste du monde si sa sauvegarde est supérieure à son investissement. La thèse emploierait la croissance de la productivité pour afficher les sources de lumière sur cette hétérogénéité entre les pays. [...] / The financial globalization for the past decades witnesses the global imbalance phenomenon on which the deficit current accounts by some large advanced economics are continuously financed by some developing economies with the high output growth rates and the scarce capital stocks. On the theoretical ground, the Neo-Classical growth model implies that one economy with scarcity of capital would have a high marginal product of capital and a high autarky interest rate therefore, at the integration with the free mobile capital, that country would experience the net total capital inflows so that the domestic interest rate equals that to the rest of world’s rate (Lucas 1990). Furthermore, one economy growing faster than the rest of the world would also have a higher investment demand and should experience the inflows of net total capitals (Gourinchas and Jeanne 2015). The global imbalances are the result of the heterogeneity in the patterns of savings and investments across countries. Indeed, one country experiences an inflow of capital if its saving is less that its investment: that country borrows from the rest of the world to finance the excess investment demand. Similarly, one country would lend to the rest of the world if its saving is higher than its investment. The thesis would employ the productivity growth to shed the refresh lights on this heterogeneity across countries. [...]

This thesis demonstrates that consumer leverage can contribute to financial crises such as the subprime mortgage crisis characterised by increased bankruptcy prospects and tightened credit access. A recession may follow even when the leveraged sector is not a production sector and can be triggered by seeming positive events such as a technological innovation and a relaxation of borrowing conditions. The first preliminary chapter updates the Bernanke, Gertler and Gilchrist (1999) approach with financial frictions in the production sector to a two-sector model with consumption and housing. It shows that credit frictions in the capital financing decisions of housing firms are not sufficient to capture the negative consumer experience with falling housing prices and relaxed credit access during the recession. The second chapter brings the model closer to the subprime mortgage crisis by shifting credit constraints to the consumer mortgage market. Increased supply of houses lowers asset prices and reduces the value of the real estate collateral used in the mortgage which in turn worsens the leverage of indebted consumers. A relaxation of borrowing conditions turns credit-constrained households into a potential source of disturbances themselves when market optimism allows them to raise their leverage with little downpayment. Both cases demonstrate that although households are not production agents, their worsening debt levels can trigger a lasting financial downturn. The third chapter develops a chained mortgage contracts model where both homeowner consumers and the financial institutions that securitize their mortgage loan are credit-constrained. Adding credit constraints to the financial sector that provides housing mortgages creates opportunities for risk sharing where banks shift some of the downturn onto indebted consumers in order to hasten their own recovery. This consequence is especially evident in the case of relaxed credit access for banks. Financial institutions repair their debt position relatively fast at the expense of consumers whose borrowing ability is squeezed for a long period despite the fact that they may not be the source of the disturbance. The result mirrors the recent subprime mortgage crisis characterised by a sharp but brief decline for banks and a protracted recovery for mortgaged households.

[pt] Esta tese é composta de quatro capítulos sobre a relação entre Crédito e Desenvolvimento Econômico. No primeiro capítulo descrevemos os conceitos, relações e mecanismos utilizados nos demais capítulos. No segundo capítulo avaliamos o impacto de reduções em três diferentes restrições financeiras sobre o PIB per capita no Brasil. Para tanto, utilizamos uma versão do modelo de crescimento neoclássico com agentes heterogêneos e três fricções financeiras. O modelo é calibrado para a economia brasileira em 2009 e fazemos exercícios de simulação. No primeiro exercício, uma redução do custo de participação no mercado de crédito, que permitiria que o percentual de firmas com crédito na economia fosse igual à média dos países desenvolvidos, geraria um aumento no PIB per capita de 3,6 por cento. No segundo exercício, uma redução do custo de monitoramento, que permitiria que o spread na economia fosse igual ao spread médio nos países desenvolvidos, geraria uma elevação no PIB per capita de 1,7 por cento. No terceiro exercício avaliamos um relaxamento nas restrições de endividamento. Os resultados mostram que a redução dos colaterais no Brasil para o nível dos países desenvolvidos elevaria o PIB per capita em 12 por cento. No terceiro capítulo buscamos analisar os efeitos macroeconômicos do aprofundamento do crédito com recursos livres no Brasil no período 2001-2011. Em termos mais específicos, avaliamos os impactos do aumento do crédito sobre o PIB per capita. Para tanto, utilizamos uma versão do modelo de crescimento neoclássico com agentes heterogêneos, restrições de crédito e escolha ocupacional, calibrado para a economia brasileira em 2001 e simulamos, no modelo, o aumento do crédito com recursos livres ocorrido no período. No exercício realizado, o aumento no crédito com recursos livres para as firmas de 10 por cento, em 2001, para 15 por cento do PIB em 2011, gerou um aumento de 1,5 por cento no PIB per capita no período. No quarto capítulo, nosso objetivo é avaliar o impacto do aumento do crédito no Brasil no período 2004-2008 sobre o PIB per capita, com a utilização do modelo de Lloyd-Ellis e Bernhardt (2000). Assim podemos comparar os resultados desse modelo com os resultados do modelo utilizado no terceiro capítulo. Na implementação do modelo, utilizamos uma abordagem mista de estimação e calibração para a economia brasileira em 2004. No exercício realizado, o aumento no acesso ao crédito elevou o PIB per capita em 2 por cento entre 2004 e 2008. / [en] This thesis is composed of four chapters on the relationship between Credit and Development Economics. In the first chapter we describe the concepts, relationships and mechanisms used in the other chapters. In the second chapter we evaluated the impact of reductions in three different financial constraints on GDP per capita in Brazil. To do so, we use a version of the neoclassical growth model with heterogeneous agents and three financial frictions. The model is calibrated for the Brazilian economy in 2009 and we do simulation exercises. In the first exercise, a reduction in the cost of participation in the credit market, which would allow the percentage of firms with credit in the economy to be equal to the average of the developed countries, would generate an increase in GDP per capita of 3.6 percent. In the second exercise, a reduction in the cost of monitoring, which would allow the spread in the economy to be equal to the average spread in developed countries, would generate a rise in GDP per capita of 1.7 percent. In the third exercise we evaluated a relaxation in the borrowing constraint. The results show that the reduction of collaterals in Brazil to the level of developed countries would raise GDP per capita by 12 percent. In the third chapter we seek to analyze the macroeconomic effects of the deepening of credit with free resources in Brazil in the period 2001-2011. In more specific terms, we evaluate the impacts of credit growth on GDP per capita. To do so, we used a version of the neoclassical growth model with heterogeneous agents, credit restrictions and occupational choice, calibrated for the Brazilian economy in 2001 and simulated in the model the increase in credit with free resources occurred in the period. In the exercise, the increase in free resources credit for firms from 10 percent in 2001 to 15 percent of GDP in 2011 generated a 1.5 percent increase in GDP per capita in the period. In the fourth chapter, our objective is to evaluate the impact of the increase of credit in Brazil in the period 2004-2008 on GDP per capita, using the model of Lloyd-Ellis and Bernhardt (2000). Thus we can compare the results of this model with the results of the model used in the third chapter. In the implementation of the model, we used a mixed approach of estimation and calibration for the Brazilian economy in 2004. In the exercise carried out, the increase in access to credit raised GDP per capita by 2 percent between 2004 and 2008.