题目:The Effects of Startup Acquisitions on Innovation and Economic Growth

主讲人： Tom Schmitz，博科尼大学

时间：2022年5月23日上午10：00 – 11：30 （北京时间）

举办方式：线上讲座，扫描文末二维码即可报名

主讲人简介：

Tom Schmitz received his PhD from Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, in 2015. He has been an Assistant Professor of Economics at Bocconi University, Milan, between 2015 and 2022, and will join Queen Mary University of London as a Senior Lecturer in Economics in September 2022. His research has been published, among others, in the American Economic Review and in the Journal of the European Economic Association.

Abstract:

Acquisitions of startups by large incumbents have conflicting effects on aggregate

innovation and growth. On the one hand, acquisitions provide an incentive for startup

creation, and are a way to transfer ideas to more efficient users. On the other hand,

incumbents might acquire some startups just to “kill” their ideas, and acquisitions can

erode incumbents’ innovation incentives. Our paper aims to assess the net effect of

these forces. To do so, we build an endogenous growth model with heterogeneous

firms and acquisitions, and calibrate its parameters by matching micro-level evidence

on startup acquisitions and patenting. Our calibrated model implies that acquisitions

raise the startup rate, but lower incumbents’ own innovation as well as the percentage

of implemented startup ideas. Quantitatively, the negative forces are slightly stronger:

a startup acquisition ban would increase growth by 0.03 percentage points per year.