Mustafa Bulut

I am a postdoctoral fellow at the Mistra Center for Sustainable Markets (Misum) and the Swedish House of Finance (SHoF) at the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE). I received my PhD in Finance from SSE in May 2024. Prior to my doctoral studies, I worked as a junior economist in the Research Department of the Central Bank of Turkey.

My research lies in empirical corporate finance, with a particular focus on initial public offerings (IPOs), agglomeration, and innovation. I examine how going public affects a firm’s innovative activity, its organizational boundaries, and its role within the local business environment. A central theme in my work is that IPOs generate important local spillover effects: by reshaping collaboration patterns and reallocating talent, they influence not only the IPO firm but also the innovative performance of nearby firms.

I will be on the 2025–2026 job market.

 

Job market paper title: Local Innovation Spillovers of IPOs

Abstract: I study the spillover effects of initial public offerings (IPOs) on local innovation. As the decision to go public is endogenous to local economic conditions, I compare counties in which there is a completed IPO with those in which an IPO attempt is withdrawn from registration. To address the additional bias introduced by this strategy,  I use NASDAQ returns during the book-building period as an instrument for IPO completion. I find that local innovation increases after a firm goes public in a county, compared to counties with a failed IPO. The innovation spillovers are stronger for firms operating in similar technologies as the IPO firms, in counties where IPO establishments constitute a larger portion of the local economy, and in smaller geographies around the IPO establishments. Local innovation in IPO counties increases mainly through existing firms becoming more innovative and attracting new inventors to the area.