Replication data for: Eponymous Entrepreneurs

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Sharon Belenzon; Aaron K. Chatterji; Brendan Daley

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
EPO_AER_DO_FILES_JULY2017-FINAL			10/12/2019 02:57:AM
LICENSE.txt	text/plain	14.6 KB	10/11/2019 10:57:PM

Project Citation:

Belenzon, Sharon, Chatterji, Aaron K., and Daley, Brendan. Replication data for: Eponymous Entrepreneurs. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2017. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-10-12. https://doi.org/10.3886/E113022V1

Project Description

Summary: We demonstrate that eponymy—firms being named after their owners—is linked to superior firm performance, but is relatively uncommon (about 19 percent of firms in our data). We propose an explanation based on eponymy creating an association between the entrepreneur and her firm that increases the reputational benefits/costs of successful/unsuccessful outcomes. We develop a corresponding signaling model, which further predicts that these effects will be stronger for entrepreneurs with rarer names. We find support for the model's predictions using a unique panel dataset consisting of over 1.8 million firms.

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:
      D82 Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
      L25 Firm Performance: Size, Diversification, and Scope
      L26 Entrepreneurship
      M13 New Firms; Startups

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Published Versions

V1 [2019-10-12]

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