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Professor Javier Miranda, PhD

Professor Javier Miranda, PhD
Current Position

since 1/23

Head of the Research Group Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Productivity Growth

Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) – Member of the Leibniz Association

since 3/21

Deputy Head of the Department of Structural Change and Productivity

Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) – Member of the Leibniz Association

since 4/21

Professor

Friedrich Schiller University Jena

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Research Interests
  • innovation
  • entrepreneurship
  • empirical productivity research

Javier Miranda joined the institute in March 2021. He is a Professor at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. His research focuses on business dynamics, job creation and growth, entrepreneurship, high growth firms, innovation, business finance, and synthetic data.

Javier Miranda received his bachelor's degree from Universidad Autonoma Madrid, his master's degree and his PhD from American University in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining IWH, he was Principal Economist at the U.S. Census Bureau.

Your contact

Professor Javier Miranda, PhD
Professor Javier Miranda, PhD
Mitglied - Department Structural Change and Productivity
Send Message +49 345 7753-750

Publications

Refereed Publications

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Immigration and Entrepreneurship in the United States

Pierre Azoulay Benjamin Jones J. Daniel Kim Javier Miranda

in: American Economic Review: Insights, No. 1, 2022

Abstract

Immigration can expand labor supply and create greater competition for native-born workers. But immigrants may also start new firms, expanding labor demand. This paper uses U.S. administrative data and other data resources to study the role of immigrants in entrepreneurship. We ask how often immigrants start companies, how many jobs these firms create, and how these firms compare with those founded by U.S.-born individuals. A simple model provides a measurement framework for addressing the dual roles of immigrants as founders and workers. The findings suggest that immigrants act more as "job creators" than "job takers" and that non-U.S. born founders play outsized roles in U.S. high-growth entrepreneurship

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Changing Business Dynamism and Productivity: Shocks versus Responsiveness

Ryan A. Decker John Haltiwanger Ron S. Jarmin Javier Miranda

in: American Economic Review, No. 12, 2020

Abstract

The pace of job reallocation has declined in the United States in recent decades. We draw insight from canonical models of business dynamics in which reallocation can decline due to (i) lower dispersion of idiosyncratic shocks faced by businesses, or (ii) weaker marginal responsiveness of businesses to shocks. We show that shock dispersion has actually risen, while the responsiveness of business-level employment to productivity has weakened. Moreover, declining responsiveness can account for a significant fraction of the decline in the pace of job reallocation, and we find suggestive evidence this has been a drag on aggregate productivity.

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Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

Pierre Azoulay Benjamin Jones J. Daniel Kim Javier Miranda

in: American Economic Review: Insights, No. 1, 2020

Abstract

Many observers, and many investors, believe that young people are especially likely to produce the most successful new firms. Integrating administrative data on firms, workers, and owners, we study start-ups systematically in the United States and find that successful entrepreneurs are middle-aged, not young. The mean age at founding for the 1-in-1,000 fastest growing new ventures is 45.0. The findings are similar when considering high-technology sectors, entrepreneurial hubs, and successful firm exits. Prior experience in the specific industry predicts much greater rates of entrepreneurial success. These findings strongly reject common hypotheses that emphasize youth as a key trait of successful entrepreneurs.

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Books

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Measuring and Accounting for Innovation in the Twenty-First Century

Carol Corrado Jonathan Haskel Javier Miranda Daniel Sichel

in: NBER Studies in Income and Wealth, 2021

Abstract

<span lang="EN-US">Measuring innovation is challenging both for researchers and for national statisticians, and it is increasingly important in light of the ongoing digital revolution. National accounts and many other economic statistics were designed before the emergence of the digital economy and the growing importance of intangible capital. They do not yet fully capture the wide range of innovative activity that is observed in modern economies.<br /> This volume examines how to measure innovation, track its effects on economic activity and prices, and understand how it has changed the structure of production processes, labor markets, and organizational form and operation in business. The contributors explore new approaches to, and data sources for, measurement—such as collecting data for a particular innovation as opposed to a firm, and the use of trademarks for tracking innovation. They also consider the connections between university-based R&amp;D and business startups, and the potential impacts of innovation on income distribution.<br /> The research suggests potential strategies for expanding current measurement frameworks to better capture innovative activity, such as more detailed tracking of global value chains to identify innovation across time and space, and expanding the measurement of the GDP impacts of innovation in fields such as consumer content delivery and cloud computing.</span>

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Working Papers

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The Characteristics and Geographic Distribution of Robot Hubs in U.S. Manufacturing Establishments

Erik Brynjolfsson Catherine Buffington Nathan Goldschlag J. Frank Li Javier Miranda Robert Seamans

in: IWH Discussion Papers, No. 7, 2023

Abstract

We use data from the Annual Survey of Manufactures to study the characteristics and geography of investments in robots across U.S. manufacturing establishments. We find that robotics adoption and robot intensity (the number of robots per employee) is much more strongly related to establishment size than age. We find that establishments that report having robotics have higher capital expenditures, including higher information technology (IT) capital expenditures. Also, establishments are more likely to have robotics if other establishments in the same Core-Based Statistical Area (CBSA) and industry also report having robotics. The distribution of robots is highly skewed across establishments’ locations. Some locations, which we call Robot Hubs, have far more robots than one would expect even after accounting for industry and manufacturing employment. We characterize these Robot Hubs along several industry, demographic, and institutional dimensions. The presence of robot integrators and higher levels of union membership are positively correlated with being a Robot Hub.

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The (Heterogenous) Economic Effects of Private Equity Buyouts

Steven J. Davis John Haltiwanger Kyle Handley Josh Lerner Ben Lipsius Javier Miranda

in: IWH Discussion Papers, No. 10, 2022

Abstract

The effects of private equity buyouts on employment, productivity, and job reallocation vary tremendously with macroeconomic and credit conditions, across private equity groups, and by type of buyout. We reach this conclusion by examining the most extensive database of U.S. buyouts ever compiled, encompassing thousands of buyout targets from 1980 to 2013 and millions of control firms. Employment shrinks 13% over two years after buyouts of publicly listed firms – on average, and relative to control firms – but expands 13% after buyouts of privately held firms. Post-buyout productivity gains at target firms are large on average and much larger yet for deals executed amidst tight credit conditions. A post-buyout tightening of credit conditions or slowing of GDP growth curtails employment growth and intra-firm job reallocation at target firms. We also show that buyout effects differ across the private equity groups that sponsor buyouts, and these differences persist over time at the group level. Rapid upscaling in deal flow at the group level brings lower employment growth at target firms.

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Measuring the Impact of Household Innovation using Administrative Data

Javier Miranda Nikolas Zolas

in: NBER Working Paper, No. 25259, 2018

Abstract

We link USPTO patent data to U.S. Census Bureau administrative records on individuals and firms. The combined dataset provides us with a directory of patenting household inventors as well as a time-series directory of self-employed businesses tied to household innovations. We describe the characteristics of household inventors by race, age, gender and U.S. origin, as well as the types of patented innovations pursued by these inventors. Business data allows us to highlight how patents shape the early life-cycle dynamics of nonemployer businesses. We find household innovators are disproportionately U.S. born, white and their age distribution has thicker tails relative to business innovators. Data shows there is a deficit of female and black inventors. Household inventors tend to work in consumer product areas compared to traditional business patents. While patented household innovations do not have the same impact of business innovations their uniqueness and impact remains surprisingly high. Back of the envelope calculations suggest patented household innovations granted between 2000 and 2011 might generate $5.0B in revenue (2000 dollars).&nbsp;

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Keywords

Productivity
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