Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(118,360)
- Faculty Publications (305)
- 2022
- Working Paper
House Prices, Home Equity and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from U.S. Census Micro Data
By: Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda
During 1992-2007, house price growth is strongly correlated with local entrepreneurship. We show with Census Bureau data that most of this entry is related to construction and real estate; these entrants tend to be small and short-lived. Using a 1998 Texas reform that... View Details
- February 2015 (Revised February 2017)
- Case
Winnan Metal: Fulfilling the Dream
By: William R. Kerr, Jim Sharpe and James Weber
Neil Kashyap and Neil Lombardo (HBS '08) acquired Winnan Metal, Inc., a metal fabrication shop, after raising a search fund and an 11 month search to fulfill their dreams of becoming business owners. Two weeks after they took control of the company, Winnan's largest... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurial Management; Turnarounds; Bank Loan; Crisis Management; Financial Analysis; Search Funds; Acquisitions; Financial Capital Needed; Management; Operations Management; Sales; Entrepreneurship; Decision Making; Change Management; Manufacturing Industry; United States; Indiana
- Article
Spatial Determinants of Entrepreneurship in India
By: Ejaz Ghani, William R. Kerr and Stephen O'Connell
We analyze the spatial determinants of entrepreneurship in India in the manufacturing and services sectors. Among general district traits, quality of physical infrastructure and workforce education are the strongest predictors of entry, with labor laws and household... View Details
- November 2014
- Article
The Dynamics of Firm Lobbying
By: William R. Kerr, William F. Lincoln and Prachi Mishra
We study the determinants of the dynamics of firm lobbying behavior using a panel data set covering 1998–2006. Our data exhibit three striking facts: (i) few firms lobby, (ii) lobbying status is strongly associated with firm size, and (iii) lobbying status is highly... View Details
- Winter 2014
- Article
Labor Regulations and European Venture Capital
By: Ant Bozkaya and William R. Kerr
European nations substitute between employment protection regulations and labor market expenditures (e.g., unemployment insurance benefits) for providing worker insurance. Employment regulations more directly tax firms making frequent labor adjustments than other labor... View Details
- 2014
- Other Teaching and Training Material
Entrepreneurship Reading: Financing Entrepreneurial Ventures
By: William R. Kerr, Ramana Nanda and James McQuade
"Financing Entrepreneurial Ventures" introduces students to the key issues involved in the financing of entrepreneurial enterprises. The Reading begins by examining how business models shape external financing requirements. It then contrasts the choice to bootstrap... View Details
- September 2014
- Article
Income Inequality and Social Preferences for Redistribution and Compensation Differentials
By: William R. Kerr
In cross-sectional studies, countries with greater income inequality typically exhibit less support for government-led redistribution and greater acceptance of wage inequality (e.g., United States versus Western Europe). If individual nations evolve along this pattern,... View Details
- 2014
- Working Paper
Entrepreneurship as Experimentation
By: William R. Kerr, Ramana Nanda and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf
Entrepreneurship research is on the rise but many questions about its fundamental nature still exist. We argue that entrepreneurship is about experimentation: the probabilities of success are low, extremely skewed and unknowable until an investment is made. At a macro... View Details
- July 2014
- Teaching Note
Homestrings, Inc.: Diaspora-Based Financing and the Crowd Funding of Development
By: William R. Kerr and Penelope Rossano
- July 2014
- Article
Diasporas and Outsourcing: Evidence from oDesk and India
By: Ejaz Ghani, William R. Kerr and Christopher Stanton
This study examines the role of the Indian diaspora in the outsourcing of work to India. Our data are taken from oDesk, the world's largest online platform for outsourced contracts, where India is the largest country in terms of contract volume. We use an ethnic name... View Details
- Article
Entrepreneurship as Experimentation
By: William R. Kerr, Ramana Nanda and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf
Entrepreneurship research is on the rise, but many questions about its fundamental nature still exist. We argue that entrepreneurship is about experimentation: the probabilities of success are low, extremely skewed, and unknowable until an investment is made. At a... View Details
- June 2014
- Teaching Note
FanMode: Launching a Global Sports Venture
By: William R. Kerr and Penelope Rossano
- June 2014
- Teaching Note
AVA.ph: Growing a Filipino E-Commerce Company
By: William Kerr and Penelope Rossano
- May 2014
- Article
Political Reservations and Women's Entrepreneurship in India
By: Ejaz Ghani, William R. Kerr and Stephen D. O'Connell
We quantify the link between the timing of state-level implementations of political reservations for women in India with the role of women in India's manufacturing sector. While overall employment of women in manufacturing does not increase after the reforms, we find... View Details
- 2014
- Chapter
Clusters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation
By: Aaron Chatterji, Edward Glaeser and William R. Kerr
This chapter reviews recent academic work on the spatial concentration of entrepreneurship and innovation in the United States. We discuss rationales for the agglomeration of these activities and the economic consequences of clusters. We identify and discuss policies... View Details
- March 2014 (Revised June 2016)
- Case
IDinsight: Informing Decisions for Global Development
By: Dina Pomeranz and William R. Kerr
- January 2014
- Case
Entrepreneurial Finance Lab: Scaling an Innovative Start-up Financing Venture
By: Joan Farre-Mensa, William R. Kerr and Alexis Brownell
EFL provides credit-scoring services in developing countries using psychometric assessment, but the potential loss of a large customer makes them reconsider their scaling narrative. View Details
- January 2014
- Article
The Consequences of Entrepreneurial Finance: Evidence from Angel Financings
By: William R. Kerr, Josh Lerner and Antoinette Schoar
This paper documents that ventures that are funded by two successful angel groups experience superior outcomes to rejected ventures: they have improved survival, exits, employment, patenting, web traffic, and financing. We use strong discontinuities in angel funding... View Details
- 2013
- Working Paper
Heterogeneous Technology Diffusion and Ricardian Trade Patterns
By: William R. Kerr
This study tests the importance of Ricardian technology differences for international trade. The empirical analysis has three comparative advantages: including emerging and advanced economies, isolating panel variation regarding the link between productivity and... View Details
- 2013
- Article
Local Industrial Structures and Female Entrepreneurship in India
By: Ejaz Ghani, William R. Kerr and Stephen O'Connell
We analyze the spatial determinants of female entrepreneurship in India in the manufacturing and services sectors. We focus on the presence of incumbent female-owned businesses and their role in promoting higher subsequent female entrepreneurship relative to male... View Details