Hello! I am a Stone Postdoctoral Fellow at the Vancouver School of Economics. In August 2024, I obtained my Ph.D. from the Sauder School of Business.
I am on the 2024/2025 job market.
In my research, I use administrative data to answer questions at the intersection of entrepreneurial finance and labor economics. My work has two main strands. The first focuses on how family decisions impact entrepreneurs and their firms. The second examines firms’ responses to economic shocks. In my job market paper, I study the effect of children on women’s entrepreneurial activities.
You can learn more about me in my CV.
Email me: valentina.rutigliano@sauder.ubc.ca
Minding Your Business or Your Child? Motherhood and the Entrepreneurship Gap
Job Market Paper
Presentations: (2024) SFS Cavalcade; CIRANO & Université Laval Les femmes en économie; CSEF-RCFS Conference on Finance, Labor and Inequality; Linked
Employer-Employee Data Workshop; EFA; FMA; US Census Bureau; IDB Accelerating Growth for Women-led SMEs; Monash; Simon Fraser; Wilfrid Laurier; scheduled: HEC Paris Entrepreneurship Workshop; (2025) Finance Down Under
Women are less likely than men to start firms and female entrepreneurs are less likely to succeed. This paper studies the effect of childbirth on women’s entrepreneurial activity. Drawing on rich administrative data from Canada and using an event study and instrumental variable design, I show that childbirth has substantial negative effects on women’s founding rates and firm performance, accounting for a large share of the gender gap in entrepreneurship. The impact spills over onto workers, who experience a decrease in earnings. The effects are permanent: entrepreneurial outcomes never recover to their pre-birth levels. The results are not due to a reduction in risk-taking and cannot be fully explained by household specialization based on labor market advantage. Childcare availability, progressive gender norms, and access to credit reduce the adverse effect of childbirth on the entrepreneurship gap.
Entrepreneurs' Diversification and Labor Income Risk
with Jan Bena, Andrew Ellul, and Marco Pagano
FMA Best Paper in Corporate Finance; CSEF/UniCredit Foundation Best Paper Award
Presentations: (2023) UNC-Duke Corporate Finance*, SFS Cavalcade, FIRS, CSEF - RCFS Conference on Finance, Labor and
Inequality; ECGI Conference on Resilience of Family Businesses*; EFA*; NFA; FMA; HEC Montreal; (2024) ASSA Econometrics Society*, CSEF-IGIER Symposium on Economics and Institutions
Entrepreneurs with better diversified portfolios provide more insurance to employees against labor income risk: in a sample of over 524,000 Canadian firms and 858,000 owners, firms owned by more diversified entrepreneurs offer more stable jobs and earnings to employees when faced by idiosyncratic shocks. A one standard deviation increase in owner’s diversification reduces the shock’s pass-through rate to labor layoffs by 13% and to workers’ earnings by 41%. The data are consistent with such insurance being partly provided to retain valuable human capital and partly to avoid costly terminations. There is no evidence of insurance being priced in average wages.
Young firms create more jobs than established firms in response to positive demand shocks, yet the mechanisms behind this excess responsiveness remain largely unknown. This paper investigates the strategic choices firms make to exploit growth opportunities at different stages of their life cycle. Using detailed data on firms’ international trade activities, I show that the decisions to increase market penetration in existing markets, diversify their product portfolios, or expand into new geographic markets in response to demand shocks vary over the life cycle. Young entrepreneurs, not just young firms, are more responsive to demand shocks.
Commodity Price Shocks and Growth in the Green Economy: Evidence from the Mining Sector
with Jan Bena
This study examines the mining sector’s responsiveness to global commodity price shocks, with a focus on critical minerals essential for the low-carbon transition, such as cobalt, nickel, and lithium. First, we show that exploration and extraction activities are highly responsive to global commodity price fluctuations. Second, we analyze the reallocation of human capital from other sectors as sustainable mining emerges as a key industry. Our analysis considers both the flow of professionals from various industries into mining and the individuals who capitalize on these opportunities to establish new firms or become early-stage investors in mining ventures.