Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/322466 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
UCD Centre for Economic Research Working Paper Series No. WP25/17
Publisher: 
University College Dublin, UCD School of Economics, Dublin
Abstract: 
We analyze how entrepreneurs' education affects the relationship between access to bank credit and real outcomes. For identification, we use a sharp discontinuity created by a bank's credit score and the associated loan origination decision, along with exogenous variations in educational attainment. Our findings show that loans granted to university-educated entrepreneurs result in higher ex-post income, wealth, firm growth, and performance. Innovation, asset intangibility, and the hiring of higher-paid employees almost fully account for these gains. These mechanisms accentuate technological differences across firms, leading to higher payoffs but also higher acrossfirm inequality over the medium to long run.
Subjects: 
Education
Entrepreneurs
Bank credit
Firm performance
Pay inequality
JEL: 
G21
G32
I24
M54
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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