Innovation and Motherhood, with Stefan Obernberger and Arnim Seidlitz

We investigate the impact of childbirth on the careers of women in innovation, a male-dominated field. We find that the fertility rate of female inventors is remarkably low. Most female inventors have their first child only after filing their first patent application. Following birth, female inventors are much less likely to file patents. Much of the loss in patent output can be explained by temporary (maternity) leave, part-time work, and lower mobility. The innovation gap after childbirth leads to economically meaningful wage disparities, indicating a substantial depreciation of female inventors' human capital. Male inventors also face declines in their innovation output and earnings, but these losses are much smaller than those observed for women. Our findings emphasize the difficulties of reconciling a career in innovation with being a parent in general and with being a mother in particular.

Presentations: American Finance Association (2026, scheduled), Nova School of Business and Economics, Tsinghua University, WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management

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.

Presentations: Paris Finance December Meeting, 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

Angels and Demons: The Negative Effect of Employees' Angel Investments on Corporate Innovation, 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.

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

Reaction to Early Failure in University: A Regression Discontinuity Design, with Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi

This paper examines gender gaps in persistence in educational attainment. Analyzing the impact of failing the initial mathematics exam on university completion, we show that early academic failure disproportionately undermines male students' persistence in higher education. Utilizing administrative data from a German business school and leveraging a sharp discontinuity at the exam's passing threshold for 8,500 undergraduates, we identify causal effects. The results indicate that female students remain unaffected by failing their first exam, exhibiting greater resilience. In contrast, male students who marginally fail are 14 percentage points (17.5%) less likely to complete their degree. Further analysis, including survey data, suggests that overconfidence and competitiveness create larger negative surprises of failure for male students which may contribute to their higher dropout rates.

Presentations: Verein für Socialpolitik, European Economic Association

High-End Pricing, with Patrick Verwijmeren

A substantial fraction of IPOs is priced at exactly the high-end of the pricing range. We find that these IPO prices are predictably biased. Investing in IPOs priced at the high-end leads to first-day returns that are 8 percentage points higher than investing in IPOs that are priced just below or above the high-end. We argue that these results are in line with managerial satisficing, in which managers stop seeking higher outcomes and settle for satisfactory results.

Presentations: RBFC 2024, CUNEF, DGF