New firms are often based on ideas that the founders developed while working for incumbent firms. We study the macroeconomic effects of spinoffs through a growth model of product variety expansion, driven by firm entry, and product innovation. Spinoffs stem from conflicts of interest between...

Using rich data from the Italian local credit markets (provinces), this paper investigates the impact of local banking development on income inequality and the role of the socioeconomic structure in this link. Exploiting the Italian historical banking regulation to instrument for the local...

Using a rich sample of small and medium-sized European firms, we study how banks' lending technologies affected firms' export activities during the 2009 great trade collapse. We find that bank-firm relationships mitigated the contraction of firms' export by easing banks' access to inside, "soft"...