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Financial Distancing: How Venture Capital Follows the Economy Down and Curtails Innovation

Author

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  • Sabrina Howell

    (New York University)

  • Josh Lerner

    (Harvard Business School, Entrepreneurial Management Unit)

  • Ramana Nanda

    (Harvard Business School, Entrepreneurial Management Unit)

  • Richard Townsend

    (University of California, San Diego)

Abstract

Although late-stage venture capital (VC) activity did not change dramatically in the first two months after the COVID-19 pandemic reached the U.S., early-stage VC activity declined by 38%. The particular sensitivity of early-stage VC investment to market conditions- which we show to be common across recessions spanning four decades from 1976 to 2017- raises questions about the pro-cyclicality of VC and its implications for innovation, especially in light of the common narrative that VC is relatively insulated from public markets. We find that the implications for innovation are not benign: innovation conducted by VC-backed firms in recessions is less highly cited, less original, less general, and less closely related to fundamental science. These effects are more pronounced for startups financed by early-stage venture funds. Given the important role that VC plays in financing breakthrough innovations in the economy, our findings have implications for the broader discussion on the nature of innovation across business cycles.

Suggested Citation

  • Sabrina Howell & Josh Lerner & Ramana Nanda & Richard Townsend, 2020. "Financial Distancing: How Venture Capital Follows the Economy Down and Curtails Innovation," Harvard Business School Working Papers 20-115, Harvard Business School.
  • Handle: RePEc:hbs:wpaper:20-115
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    Cited by:

    1. Bellucci, Andrea & Borisov, Alexander & Gucciardi, Gianluca & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2023. "The reallocation effects of COVID-19: Evidence from venture capital investments around the world," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    2. Huang, Ying Sophie & Wu, Jiajia & Guo, Feng, 2022. "Venture capital staging under economic policy uncertainty," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 572-596.
    3. Ye Zhang, 2020. "Discrimination in the Venture Capital Industry: Evidence from Field Experiments," Papers 2010.16084, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2022.
    4. Yasar, Burze & Sevilay Yılmaz, Işıl & Hatipoğlu, Nurullah & Salih, Aslıhan, 2022. "Stretching the success in reward-based crowdfunding," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 205-220.
    5. Cristiano Bellavitis & Christian Fisch & Rod B. McNaughton, 2022. "COVID-19 and the global venture capital landscape," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 781-805, October.
    6. Josh Lerner & Ramana Nanda, 2020. "Venture Capital's Role in Financing Innovation: What We Know and How Much We Still Need to Learn," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(3), pages 237-261, Summer.
    7. Jagriti Srivastava & Balagopal Gopalakrishnan, 2021. "Work from home amenability and venture capital financing during COVID-19," Working papers 458, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode.
    8. Andrea Bellucci & Gianluca Gucciardi, 2023. "A Turning Point for Banking: Unravelling the Changing Landscape of Banking Activity in Europe since the COVID-19 pandemic," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 183, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.
    9. Duan, Yuejiao & El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane & Li, Haoran & Li, Xinming, 2021. "Bank systemic risk around COVID-19: A cross-country analysis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    10. Pontus Braunerhjelm, 2022. "Rethinking stabilization policies; Including supply-side measures and entrepreneurial processes," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 963-983, February.
    11. Gompers, Paul & Gornall, Will & Kaplan, Steven N. & Strebulaev, Ilya A., 2021. "Venture Capitalists and COVID-19," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 56(7), pages 2474-2499, November.
    12. Amoroso, Sara & Martino, Roberto, 2020. "Regulations and technology gap in Europe: The role of firm dynamics," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    13. Lora Dimitrova & Sapnoti K Eswar, 2023. "Capital Gains Tax, Venture Capital, and Innovation in Start-Ups," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 27(4), pages 1471-1519.
    14. Sabrina T. Howell & Jason Rathje & John Van Reenen & Jun Wong, 2021. "Opening up military innovation: causal effects of reforms to U.S. defense research," POID Working Papers 004, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    15. Natee Amornsiripanitch & Paul A. Gompers & George Hu & Kaushik Vasudevan, 2021. "Getting Schooled: The Role of Universities in Attracting Immigrant Entrepreneurs," NBER Working Papers 28773, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Diekhof, Josefine & Krieger, Bastian & Licht, Georg & Rammer, Christian & Schmitt, Johannes & Stenke, Gero, 2021. "The impact of the Covid-19 crisis on innovation: First in-sights from the German business sector," ZEW Expert Briefs 21-06, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    17. Howell, Sabrina T. & Rathje, Jason & Van Reenen, John & Wong, Jun, 2021. "Opening up Military Innovation: Causal Effects of 'Bottom-up' Reforms to U.S. Defense Research," IZA Discussion Papers 14297, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Shai Bernstein & Richard R. Townsend & Ting Xu, 2020. "Flight to Safety: How Economic Downturns Affect Talent Flows to Startups," NBER Working Papers 27907, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Brown, Ross & Rocha, Augusto, 2020. "Entrepreneurial uncertainty during the Covid-19 crisis: Mapping the temporal dynamics of entrepreneurial finance," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 14(C).
    20. Michael J. Andrews, 2021. "Historical patent data: A practitioner's guide," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 368-397, May.
    21. Engelberg, Joseph E. & Guzman, Jorge & Lu, Runjing & Mullins, William, 2021. "Partisan Entrepreneurship," SocArXiv qhs6j, Center for Open Science.
    22. Wellalage, Nirosha Hewa & Kumar, Vijay & Hunjra, Ahmed Imran & Al-Faryan, Mamdouh Abdulaziz Saleh, 2022. "Environmental performance and firm financing during COVID-19 outbreaks: Evidence from SMEs," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Venture Capital; Innovation; Patents; Business Cycles; Recessions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

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