Increases in defense spending – the largest portion of discretionary government spending in the U.S. – are negatively associated with private sector firm innovation measured using various patent-based proxies. A central finding in our study is that the extent to which government spending...

We use a narrative method to construct an uncertainty measure based on transnational geopolitical tensions that is plausibly uncorrelated with the existing economic conditions. Increases in geopolitical uncertainty cause a significant reduction in R&D expenditure and patenting activity –...

We hypothesize that political activism is valuable because it helps reduce political uncertainty, which, in turn, fosters firm innovation. We find that firms that support more politicians, winning politicians, politicians on Congressional committees with jurisdictional authority over the firms'...

We find that the average value of clean-technology (green) innovation is 37–52% higher due to the effects of environmental regulations, a firm’s exposure to regulatory risk, its knowledge stock of clean technology, and product market competition. This value, however, has declined due to the...

Political activism positively affects firm innovation. Firms that support more politicians, politicians on Congressional committees with jurisdictional authority over the firms' industries and politicians who join those committees innovate more. We employ instrumental variables estimation and a...

We show that the extent to which government spending hinders private sector innovation is highly dependent on a firm's revenue sensitivity to consumer demand. The effects are stronger for firms that are more dependent on internal financing to fund innovative activity such as firms with high...

We examine how overall workforce health affects corporate innovation output. Using 26,962 firm-year observations in the U.S. from 2008-2019, we document that better workforce health is associated with better innovation output. We use the instrumental variable approach and...