Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/28111 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
ZEW Discussion Papers No. 09-050
Publisher: 
Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW), Mannheim
Abstract: 
Human capital is known to be one of the most important predictors of a person's earnings. With regard to entrepreneurial success, founders' human capital is an important determinant of firm's employment growth as well. This paper investigates if the depreciation of a founder's academic knowledge affects a start-up's employment growth. The depreciation of academic knowledge is investigated by quantifying the effect of the time period which elapses after the founder has left university until the start-up is founded on firm's employment growth. Using quantile regressions, human capital depreciation is found to be of crucial importance for both ordinary academic start-ups and academic spin-offs, the founders of the latter suffering even more from human capital depreciation.
Subjects: 
Human capital depreciation
employment growth
academic entrepreneurship
JEL: 
J23
J24
L25
L26
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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