Working Papers

• Uncertainty as Opportunity: Political Polarization and High-Growth Startups (Job Market Paper)
  Presentations: WEFI Student Workshop 2025, University of Toronto 2025,  Peking University Guanghua School of Management, Peking University HSBC Business School, University of New South Wales, Queensland University of Technology, Sabanci University, Higher School of Economics, New Economic School, Central University
  Abstract: This paper examines how rising political polarization shapes startup financing through policy uncertainty. I develop a new measure of policy uncertainty based on polarized close gubernatorial elections, combining prediction market data with candidates’ ideological distance. Using this measure in a stacked difference-in-differences framework, I provide causal evidence that heightened policy uncertainty increases fundraising likelihood and amounts by 7% and 10%, respectively, and shortens the time between financing rounds by 17%. These effects are driven by candidates’ polarization and are stronger for younger and more R&D-intensive startups, consistent with a growth-option channel. Polarization-driven policy uncertainty translates into improved real outcomes for startups and has aggregate implications for exit rates of young and mature firms, enhancing economic dynamism.
  
  

• The Unintended Consequences of Intellectual Property Protection: Staying Private Longer
  Presentations: PhD Workshop on Entrepreneurial Finance 2024, NFA 2024, University of Toronto 2024, AFA 2025, MFA 2025
  Abstract: This paper examines whether the strengthening of legal protections for trade secrets delays firms’ IPOs and reduces their likelihood of going public. Because trade secrets derive their value from confidentiality, enhancements in their legal protection increase the opportunity cost of public disclosure. Using the staggered introduction of such protections across states between 1980 and 2012, I find that the enhancement in trade secret protection led firms to stay private for at least one additional year. Given the rising importance of intellectual property and its protection through trade secrets, these results suggest that the decline of public markets will likely persist.
  
  

• Understanding Founder-Friendliness: The Roles of Startup Accelerators and Venture Capitalist Reputation
  Presentations: University of Toronto 2022, NFA 2023
  Abstract: This paper offers a novel perspective on the founder-friendliness of venture capital (VC) funding, extending beyond current debates. It suggests that startup accelerators, which have emerged recently, collect information about the reputations of VCs and share it with startups. This creates a positive feedback loop that fosters greater information sharing from entrepreneurs to VCs, enabling the latter to make more impactful contributions to ventures. As a result, VCs require fewer control rights as interventions become less necessary. Ultimately, this dynamic leads to mutually beneficial relationships between startups and VCs.

Selected Work in Progress

• The Real Effects of Litigation Risk: Evidence from Canadian Firms  with Alexander Dyck and Craig Doidge 

• Litigation Risk in the Market for Corporate Control  with Lorna Zhong