We investigate whether strengthened legal protection of trade secrets increases the likelihood of a firm being acquired. Stronger protection can make a firm more attractive for acquisition due to better safeguarding of trade secrets, but it may also increase information asymmetries that...

We use the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to explore how high school peers' grit, a personality trait characterized by perseverance and passion, influences long-term outcomes approximately 15 years after high school. Exploiting random variation within schools across...

This paper characterizes the short- and long-run Cournot equilibrium with heterogeneous firms and stochastic technological change. In our model, firms have different technologies with heterogeneous fixed and variable costs and various degrees of markups. In a framework with homogeneous firms,...

We explore the association between signaling and conducting innovation collaborations with public research organizations and firms' revenues from firm and market novelties. Based on data from the German Community Innovation Survey 2023 and web-based indicators, firms conducting collaboration...

The labor market integration of asylum seekers remains a contested issue. Using the EU-Labor-Force-Survey, we characterize the state of asylum seekers' labor market integration in Europe, and provide representative statistics on several dimensions of integration. We compare asylum seekers to...

This study investigates how elements of a survey invitation message targeted to businesses influence their participation in a self-administered web survey. We implement a full factorial experiment varying five key components of the email invitation. Unlike traditional experimental setups with...

The circular economy represents a systematic shift in production and consumption, aimed at extending the life cycle of products and materials while minimizing resource use and waste. Achieving the goals of the circular economy presents firms with the challenge of innovating new products,...

In this paper, we investigate the effect of higher personal income taxes on CEO and firm performance in publicly traded US firms. In response to higher taxes on compensation, CEOs are less likely to reach performance goals and spend more time working in boards outside of their firm. At the same...

We study the problem of distributing subsidies in a market that includes both marginal individuals in need of assistance and infra-marginal individuals who would purchase the subsidized product without additional incentives. We propose the use of a wait time auction, where individuals bid the...

Reverse engineering allows firms to learn about critical components and design features of competitors' technologies. Historically, reverse engineering has often been used to help technological laggards to catch-up and profit from other's inventions. However, through reverse engineering firms...