The switch from equity to debt in venture capital-backed entrepreneurial firms is rare, but uniquely informative. Using a novel dataset of financing decisions, we find that entrepreneurial firms that raise debt financing suffer from an average 40% post-debt valuation drop and a 26% lower...

Venture capital firms’ ability to repeatedly make top performing investments suggests the importance of some aspect of organizational or human capital. However, it is an unanswered question as to what extent the important attributes of performance are a part of the firm’s organizational...

This paper explores the venture capital (VC) market and extends the standard principal-agent problem between the investor and venture capitalist to show how it alters the interaction between the venture capitalist and the entrepreneur. The nature of the three way interaction results in a...

This paper studies implementation in a principal-agent model of adverse selection. We explore ways in which the additional structure of principal agent models (compared to general implementaion models) simplifies the implementation problem. We develop a connection between the single crossing...

This study investigates whether models of forward-looking behavior explain the observed patterns of heavy drinking and smoking of men in late middle age in the Health and Retirement Study better than myopic models. We develop and estimate a sequence of nested models which differ by their degree...

The evolution of education spending in California has received plenty of attention by both academics and practitioners after this state's education finance reform of the 1970's. The impact on public education spending of the demographic trends associated with immigration has not been thoroughly...

I propose a centralized clearinghouse for college admissions in which students can signal enthusiasm by commitment, like early-decision programs. Furthermore, students can specify financial aid in their preferences and they can be matched with multiple colleges at the same time. This...