Assistant Professor @ Erasmus University Rotterdam

Contact: c.mueller@ese.eur.nl

Link to CV | Google scholar | Twitter: @MuellerClemens

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I am an Assistant Professor at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam (Erasmus School of Economics). 

My research interest revolves around the question: How can finance serve society? I am working on empirical corporate finance: Innovation, Labor, and Entrepreneurial Finance.

Research

Inventors evade their non-compete agreements by moving to another industry

Non-Compete Agreements and Labor Allocation Across Product Markets

This paper analyzes the effect of non-compete agreements on career choices of highly skilled human capital. Employees evade non-compete agreements by switching industries. The identification strategy is based on staggered changes in non-compete enforceability across US states. Employees exposed to increased non-compete agreement enforceability are 50% more likely to move to another industry. The effect is stronger when the employment firm heavily relies on non-compete agreements, as well as for high quality employees. Employees that do change industries subsequently experience a productivity decline of 20%. Overall, stronger non-compete agreement enforcement leads to inefficient reallocation of human capital in our economy.

Draft available on SSRN

Presentations: Paris Finance December Meeting 2023 (scheduled), IZA Labor Market Evaluation, Verein für Socialpolitik, Durham Finance Job Market Papers, Transatlantic Doctoral Conference, Labor and Finance Columbia Business School, Swiss Society for Financial Market Research (SGF), Erasmus University Rotterdam, American Economic Association (poster session), Northern Finance Association, IZA Workshop: Labor Market Institutions, Corporate Finance Day, Frankfurt-Mannheim PhD Conference

Data: If anyone finds it useful, here is a firm-level time series, whether firms mention the use of non-compete agreements in their 10-Ks or 10-Qs. The csv contains the variables permco, year, and NCA. NCA is a dummy variable set to one if any earlier filing of the firm mentions the use of NCAs.

The economic value of patents of a firm decreases around the time its employees invest in early-stage firms

Angels and Demons: The Negative Effect of Employees' Angel Investments on Corporate Innovation, joint with Santanu Kundu

We link data on angel investors in the US to their employment history and show that employers’ innovation output decreases when their employees personally invest in start-ups. Our evidence is consistent with agency conflicts as the reason for lower innovation output. Angel investors divert time and effort from their employer to their personal investments. The effects are more pronounced when angel investments offer stronger financial incentives. In contrast, start-ups benefit from financing by angel investors employed at public firms. We highlight a trade-off between the benefits of angel investors for start-ups and the costs for their employer.

Link to Paper (SSRN)

Presentations: European Finance Association (EFA), Paris Finance December Meeting, Northern Finance Association (NFA), Financial Management Association (FMA), International Corporate Governance Society conference (ICGS), European Financial Management Association (EFMA), Entrepreneurial Finance Conference (ENTFIN), Academy of Management (AOM), French Finance Association (AFFI), Future of Growth Conference, Eastern Finance, Financial Markets and Corporate Governance Conference (FMCG), Southwestern Finance Association (SWFA), Student-led Workshop on Entrepreneurial Finance and Innovation (WEFI), Research on Innovation, Science and Entrepreneurship (RISE3) Workshop

Students marginally below the passing threshold of their very first university exam are less likely to successfully obtain a university degree

Reaction to Early Failure in University: A Regression Discontinuity Design

Are students more likely to drop out of university if they fail their very first exam in university? To answer this research question, I use administrative university data of around 9,000 students at a medium sized German university. To identify causal effects, I compare students who very marginally fail their very first exam to those who very marginally pass their very first exam in a regression discontinuity design. There is a substantial negative drop around the passing threshold.

Please let me know if you want the most current working paper version.

Presentations: Verein für Socialpolitik, European Economic Association