AI Adoption and the Demand for Managerial Expertise, R&R Strategic Management Journal (2025)
with José Azar (IESE), Mireia Giné (IESE), Sampsa Samila (IESE)
Abstract: This paper investigates how AI adoption influences the demand for managers and their required skills. Using a skills-based measure of AI adoption derived from Lightcast job postings data, we show that when firms intensify their AI adoption they experience a significant increase in the number and share of managerial vacancies, indicating that AI implementation drives a greater demand for managerial roles. Furthermore, AI adoption shifts the skill requirements for managers, increasing the demand for cognitive and interpersonal skills such as collaboration, creativity, stakeholder management, and data analysis, while reducing the need for routine administrative skills like scheduling and budgeting. These findings suggest that AI reshapes organizations by increasing the importance of managerial expertise and by changing managerial roles and responsibilities within firms.
Presentations: 23rd ZEW Conference on "The Economics of Information and Communication Technologies" (June 2025), AI Conference at the ECB (April 2025), NYU Authors’ conference by SMJ (April 2025), KU Leuven Seminar (March 2025), 6th AI & Strategy Consortium (Feb 2025)
AI Adoption and Firm Performance: Management versus IT, Permanent working paper (2022)
with Mireia Giné (IESE), Sampsa Samila (IESE), and Bledi Taska (Burning Glass)
Abstract: We examine the impact of AI adoption on firm growth, productivity, and investment decisions and explore whether the impact on firm size and policies stems from AI adoption among management ranks or IT specialists. We measure the firm-level AI adoption using the demand for AI-related skills in online job postings. First, we document a positive association between the firm-level AI adoption and the firm's size, Capex, R&D, and total investments. We do not find robust relationships with productivity measures. Second, we find that the adoption of AI skills among managers drives the positive association with growth in sales and market capitalization, as well as with R&D and Capex. AI adoption among IT specialists does not show any robust association with firm outcomes.
The Demand for AI Skills in the Labor Market, Labour Economics, 2021, 71
with José Azar (IESE), Mireia Giné (IESE), Sampsa Samila (IESE), and Bledi Taska (Burning Glass)
Abstract: Using detailed data on skill requirements in online vacancies, we estimate the demand for AI specialists across occupations, sectors, and firms. We document a dramatic increase in the demand for AI skills over 2010-2019 in the U.S. economy across most industries and occupations. The demand is highest in IT occupations, followed by architecture and engineering, scientific, and management occupations. Firms with larger market capitalization, higher cash holdings, and higher investments in R&D have a higher demand for AI skills. We also document a wage premium of 11% for job postings that require AI skills within the same firm and 5% within the same job title. Managerial occupations have the highest wage premium for AI skills. Firms demanding AI skills more intensively also offer higher salaries in non-AI jobs.
The Look of Success: AI-Measured Face Factors and Venture Financing, Working Paper (2025)
with Silvia Dalla Fontana (ESCP Business School), Caroline Genc (Michigan State University), Lin Peng (Baruch College, CUNY)
Abstract: This study presents the first large-scale analysis of face-based impression factors in the venture capital (VC) industry. Using machine learning to extract key impression factors from founders' photos, we find that perceived trustworthiness, dominance, and youthfulness significantly predict VCs' initial funding decisions, with relative importance varying by founder gender, team composition, and industry. These factors also predict the funding amount, follow-on financing, and longer-term outcomes, such as unicorn status and acquisitions. Therefore, even experienced investors rely on facial cues when evaluating founders, and such cues serve as imperfect but informative signals of venture success.
Presentations: Labor and Finance Group Conference (December 2025*)
From In-person to Online: The New Shape of the VC Industry, R&R Journal of Corporate Finance (2025)
with Silvia Dalla Fontana (ESCP Business School), Caroline Genc (Michigan State University), Hedieh Rashidi Ranjbar (University of Melbourne)
Paper on SSRN, Media coverage in PE Findings Issue 19 (by Coller Capital)
Abstract: This paper asks whether geographical clustering and in-person interactions are still essential features of the venture capital (VC) industry in the age of online communications. Through event study and difference-in-differences analyses, we show that VCs break their traditional norm and invest in more distant startups, following an interruption of in-person interactions. This evolution goes along with changes in selection criteria and VCs' syndication process. Overall, our study reveals that online interactions cannot perfectly substitute for in-person meetings and helps us understand how VCs revisit their investment model and balance out the risks of remote investing.
Presentations: Imperial College London Seminar (2024), WEFI Fellows Meeting (2024), IESE Business School Seminar (2023), SFI-USI Summer School, WEFI PhD Seminar, Seminar at Paris Dauphine University, Finance PhD Workshop at HEC Paris, Remote Work Conference (Stanford University), AFA Poster Session (January 2023), PE Conference, PhD Workshop (Columbia University, March 2023), 5th Future of Financial Information Conference at HEC, Paris (poster session, May, 2023), Private Capital Symposium at LBS (May, 2023)
Not in Style: Matching and Gender Gap in VC Investing, Working Paper (2024)
Abstract: This paper examines the extent to which the matching between startups and venture capitalists' investment styles accounts for financing disparities between female-and male-founded companies. Analyzing initial venture capital (VC) rounds for comparable founders and startups, the study documents that the gender financing gap can be attributed to the sorting of female-founded ventures into VCs with smaller investment cheques, as large-cheque investors are less likely to fund "typical female-founded" startups. The findings suggest that the lower predicted growth prospects of such businesses may contribute to their mismatch with large-cheque VC investors.
Presentations: BSE Summer Forum in Entrepreneurship (June 2025), SEI Consortium (ESSEC, Paris, September 2024), Bordeaux School of Economics Seminar (September 2024), WEFI Fellows Meetings, KTO PhD Workshop (SKEMA), IESE Business School Seminar, KU Leuven Seminar, Tilburg University Seminar
Common Ownership in Fintech Markets
with Jose Azar (IESE) and Anna Tzanaki (Lund University)
Open Access Chapter, Media coverage in Oxford Business Law Blog
Abstract: We investigate the extent and impact of common ownership in fintech companies. We document a range of empirical facts about common ownership patterns in fintech markets around the world and discuss their implications for competition law enforcement. Specifically, fintech firms are often not publicly listed companies, and the largest owners in this type of firms are venture capital and other types of private equity investors, as opposed to large asset management firms, which are often the largest owners in publicly listed companies. We show that the extent of common ownership is generally low among privately held fintech start-ups. However, it grows substantially with the fintech firms going public. More dynamic and larger fintech markets are characterized by lower levels of common ownership, while smaller national and product markets show substantially higher ownership overlaps. Accordingly, the estimated effects of common ownership in private fintech firms – measured by the lambdas – are higher in the smaller markets. Yet, these are still relatively very low compared to empirically observed common ownership in public fintech firms in oligopolistic markets. Finally, we comment on how the specific ownership and governance structures of fintech firms may materially influence the magnitude and systemic nature of effects associated with common ownership.