Skilled labor shortages are a pressing economic challenge for many advanced economies. A potential solution is to recruit talent from abroad through skilled immigration. Exploiting the German introduction of the EU Blue Card in 2012 as a quasi-experimental policy shock to the availability of skilled labor, we are first to analyze its differentiated impact on employment and young firm performance. Our results show that young firms with non-EU founders benefit disproportionately from the increased skilled-labor supply. In this context, we do not find evidence of skilled immigrants crowding out native skilled workers. We further identify the mechanisms driving our results and find evidence of pre-existing labor market frictions such as discrimination, cultural barriers, and limited networks. We do not find evidence of skilled immigrants crowding out skilled native workers.

The ability of organizations to manage and cope with economic crises is central to the direction and severity of their impact. We explore an underidentified determinant of strategic crisis management by focusing on the role of decision-makers’ non-cognitive and cognitive traits. In a representative sample of 1,408 young German companies, we find that founders’ personality impacts the choice of crisis management strategies in the COVID-19 context. Risk-tolerant founders respond with operative innovation rather than retrenchment. Higher conscientiousness is linked to choosing a perseverance strategy and greater openness to experience increases the likelihood of implementing strategic innovation. More agreeable founders, however, are generally less responsive. Finally, migration experience and education are positively associated with innovative crisis responses. Our results have implications for policymakers and practitioners when designing measures to cope with economic distress.

The climate crisis presses policymakers, communities, individuals, and businesses to implement eco-friendly behavior. However, drivers of businesses’ enhanced environmental performance remain understudied. In a sample of 11,665 German firms between 2006 and 2021, I investigate the effect of ownership change on environmental performance and justice. I find that target firms increase their process and product innovations to improve their CO2 emissions and recycling. This effect is stronger for small and less innovative firms and does not persist for firms in disadvantaged regions with lower socioeconomic status. For practitioners and policymakers, my results show that regulations that directly or indirectly limit asset sales can have far-reaching

sustainability effects.

Seven European countries have implemented mandatory board gender quotas in the last two decades. I examine how this exogenous shock to the board of directors in publicly-listed firms impacts board- and firm-level outcomes. My analysis is the first to exploit the scattered implementation of these seven European quotas between 2008 and 2019, using a staggered difference-in-differences design. I document an economically meaningful decrease in firm performance and monitoring quality, measured by the level of earnings management. Evidence from moderation analyses show that the negative quota effect on performance is stronger in firms with higher ex-ante monitoring quality. My results suggest that imposing restrictions on specific board attributes can produce inefficient board structures and negative real effects.

This study examines how founder personality shapes the innovativeness of young firms. In a representative sample of 2,169 young German firms between 2011 and 2022, our results reveal that founder personality affects firm innovation. Openness to new experiences and agreeableness have a significantly positive influence on innovation input and output, whereas conscientiousness has a negative effect. We consider specific mediators and moderators of this effect. We show that founder personality systematically shapes founding team composition. Agreeable and extraverted founders tend to assemble less diverse teams, whereas conscientious founders assemble more diverse teams. Team diversity partially mediates the personality--innovation relationship and frequently opposes its direct effect. These findings provide theoretical and practical insights into how personality profiles shape founding teams and firm innovation. Young firm innovation can be enhanced by balancing personality-driven biases and encouraging diversity-conscious teams.

I study the labor market and migratory effects of coal phase-outs.