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Innovation, Spillovers and Venture Capital Contracts

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  • Dessi, Roberta

Abstract

IInnovative start-ups and venture capitalists are highly clustered: Silicon Valley is probably the best-known example. Clusters differ in the contracts they use, and in how they perform. I explore the link between spillovers, contractual design and performance. I find that more "incomplete" contracts, with fewer contingencies linking entrepreneurs’ rewards to performance benchmarks, become optimal when positive spillovers are large. The contracts enable the innovative entrepreneur and his investor to extract some of the surplus they generate through positive spillovers for new entrants. This provides a new rationale for contractual incompleteness, and may help to explain observed contractual practice in Silicon Valley

Suggested Citation

  • Dessi, Roberta, 2011. "Innovation, Spillovers and Venture Capital Contracts," IDEI Working Papers 684, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse, revised Dec 2013.
    • Handle: RePEc:ide:wpaper:24941
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    innovation; spillovers; venture capital; incomplete contracts;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • D86 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Economics of Contract Law
    • G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure

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