Essays on Financial Accounting, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation

Abstract

Entrepreneurship and innovation are widely regarded as key engines of economic growth. This dissertation examines how information environments influence the decisions and outcomes of entrepreneurs and innovators across three studies grounded in financial accounting and law. Chapter 1 evaluates whether easier access to information fosters entrepreneurial success. Using the staggered launch of online repositories for Franchise Disclosure Documents, which sharply reduced information processing costs for would-be franchisees, I find a 3.1 percentage-point increase in early-stage survival among new businesses. Chapter 2 investigates the impact of judicial efficiency on corporate innovation and disclosure. Exploiting the 2011 Patent Pilot Program, which assigned patent cases to judges with specialized expertise, I show that firms headquartered in participating counties expand patent based innovative output by 6.9% relative to comparable firms in non-participating counties. Chapter 3 explores how capital markets value patent based innovation, with a particular focus on the recent surge in AI-related patents.