Managerial Springboards: Employee Spillovers of Startup Accelerators

Organized by the Private Sector Development Research Network

Hosted by the International Finance Corporation (IFC)

Friday, 17th Oct 2025 from 9-10am EST

ABOUT THE SEMINAR

This seminar will explore whether startup accelerators affect the long-term career trajectories of startup employees. It uses a stacked difference-in-differences design using accelerator participants across the Americas with a judge-randomized natural experiment in Colombia. Key findings include that employees from accelerated startups are significantly more likely to move into managerial roles in other innovative firms. These effects are primarily driven by human capital accumulation, rather than selection, search, or signaling. Employees also experience wage gains of approximately 10% within 7 years of acceleration, with no increase in unemployment risk.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Juanita Gonzalez-Uribe (LSE)

Associate Professor, The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Dr. Gonzalez-Uribe is an associate professor at the London School of Economics. She holds a Ph.D. in Finance and Economics from Columbia University, along with a Master’s and Bachelor’s in Economics and Mathematics from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia).

Her research interests span entrepreneurship, private equity, and innovation, focusing on Latin America, the UK, and the US. Dr. Gonzalez-Uribe has published papers in leading academic journals, such as the Review of Financial Studies and the Journal of Financial Economics. She is also a research fellow at the Centre for Economic and Policy Research, where she co-organizes the WE_ARE Women in Economics seminar series.

Details of Dr. Gonzalez-Uribe‘s work can be found here.