Finance Webinar（2021-10)

Topic: Access to Finance and Technological Innovation: Evidence from Antebellum America

Speaker: Yifei Mao, Cornell University

Time: Wednesday, 7 April,09:00-10:30 AM Beijing Time

Location: Microsoft Teams Online Conference Room

Abstract:

How does access to finance affect technological innovation? We provide causal evidence on the finance-innovation nexus and on the role of labor practices in shaping this relation. We exploit a unique setting—antebellum America—where staggered adoption of free banking laws across states encouraged bank entry, and spatial variation in the use of exploited workers in agriculture generated differences in producers’ demand for labor-saving technologies. Results show that access to finance spurred innovation, but the positive effect on agricultural innovation diminished with labor exploitation. Where exploitative labor practices were pervasive, finance aggravated exploitation and appeared to have impeded agricultural innovation.

Introduction:

Yifei Mao is an assistant professor of finance at Cornell University. Her research interests are focused on issues in empirical corporate finance, particularly topics related to venture capital, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Her research has been published in the Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, and Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. Mao received her BA in economics from School of Economics and Management in Tsinghua University, her master's degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and her PhD in finance from Kelly School of Business in Indiana University.

https://sha.cornell.edu/faculty-research/faculty/ym355/

Your participation is warmly welcomed!