Abstract in English:

Labor market performance has differed considerably among OECD countries over the last two decades. The focus of the literature has so far been to ask whether these differences can be explained by varying degrees of labor market rigidities and generosity of welfare states. In this paper we analyze whether venture capital investments - both total and early stage venture capital investments - influences employment growth in a panel of 20 OECD countries. Our results suggest that labor market performance can be significantly affected by venture capital investments. The results are stronger for total venture capital as opposed to early stage venture capital, suggesting the possibility of a time-to-build effect.