Research in Entrepreneurial Finance explores academic research covering the formation, financ- ing, growth and outcomes of entrepreneurial firms. These firms differ from those traditionally studied in finance and economics. Such differences include ownership structure (private vs. public), size, severity of financing constraints, and the role of financial intermediaries. This course aims to understand the sources and implications of these differences. The course will not follow the traditional approach that emphasizes literature reviews. Much like one must understand how bank balance sheets work before embarking on a banking paper or how mutual fund disclosures are regulated before studying ETFs, successful entrepreneurial finance researchers are required to understand a host of rules, norms and other institutional details. Thus, the majority of lectures will focus on the background material behind the literature’s major results such as regulations, data sources, actor norms and industry trends.

Each course module/week focuses on two to three academic papers, with two goals in mind. First, students will first learn about the major research questions, facts and methods used in the literature. Papers will be both empirical and theoretical, with an emphasis on the former. Second, the course will include background or institutional setting lectures. Here, we will evaluate each week’s major paper with the following question in mind: “What major institutional setting do I need to understand to successfully replicate this paper or understand the economic phenomenon tested?”