Evaluating the attractiveness of startup employment requires an understanding of both what startups pay and the implications of these jobs for earnings trajectories. Analyzing Danish registry data, we find that employees hired by startups earn roughly 17% less over the next ten years than those hired by large, established firms. About half of this earnings differential stems from sorting—from the fact that startup employees have less human capital. Long-term earnings also vary depending on when individuals are hired. While the earliest employees of startups suffer an earnings penalty, those hired by already-successful startups earn a small premium. Two factors appear to account for the earnings penalties for the early employees: Startups fail at high rates, creating costly spells of unemployment for their (former) employees. Job mobility patterns also diverge: After being employed by a small startup, individuals rarely return to the large employers that pay more.
Organization Science, 32 (3): 587-604 (OPEN ACCESS)
]]>An introduction to a special issue in which members of the Mallen Conference analyzed ways in which digitalization had changed the business of filmed entertainment, from production to distribution to the introduction of streaming platforms.
Journal of Cultural Economics, 45: 157-170 (OPEN ACCESS)
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