Learning by Investing: Entrepreneurial Spillovers from Venture Capital

Abstract This paper studies how investing in venture capital (VC) affects the entrepreneurial outcomes of individual limited partners (LPs). Using comprehensive administrative data on entrepreneurial activities and VC fundraising and investments in China, we find that after investing in a successfully launched VC fund, individual LPs create significantly more ventures than do LPs in funds that failed to launch. These new ventures tend to be high-tech firms with better employment outcomes and more patent activity. Our results suggest that venture investments are a channel through which individual LPs learn. (JEL D83, G23, G24, L25, L26)