Set-Up Costs and the Financing of Young Firms

Firm births are key drivers of employment growth, productivity gains, and "creative destruction". We show that set-up costs create sizable financial constraints for new firms. When firms face high set-up costs, they can only be established by leveraging up and lengthening debt maturity. We empirically confirm these predictions in a large sample of young French firms. Leverage is higher and debt maturity is longer in high set-up cost industries. Last, we show that, following an exogenous shock that reduces banks' supply of long-term loans, there is relatively lower firm creation in high set-up cost manufacturing industries.