We examine how remote work affects firm productivity and employment outcomes. Using an instrumental variables design based on pre-pandemic occupational remote work suitability, we find that remote work increases the productivity of startups while reducing productivity for established firms. This effect operates partially through labor market scaling: remote startups experience substantially higher hiring rates, overcoming geographical hiring constraints for talent acquisition. Our findings suggest that remote work alleviates a key disadvantage that young firms face in hiring and expanding, while established firms experience challenges in adopting remote working practices.

We study the labor market effects of instant payment systems in the context of Brazil’s Pix rollout. Using matched employer–employee administrative data, we implement a triple-difference design that exploits pre-treatment variation in mobile penetration across municipalities, the differential exposure to payment frictions of small versus large establishments, and the timing of Pix’s introduction. We find that wages in small establishments rise significantly relative to those in large establishments after Pix, an effect fully explained by cash-intensive sectors such as retail and services. Crucially, wage inequality declines, driven entirely by wage gains among workers in the lower half of the distribution, who are primarily hired by small, cash-intensive firms. Our evidence indicates that Pix’s benefits stem from lower cash-handling costs rather than increased local consumer demand, and the pass-through to wages is amplified by local labor market frictions. A quantitative model of monopsonistic labor markets shows that while Pix's actual rollout significantly increased wage-bill and profits, a counterfactual scenario with uniform adoption--achieved by closing mobile penetration gaps--would multiply these gains by a factor of four.

Using one of the largest panel datasets on corporate culture, we examine its evolution

and origins, distinguishing between firm-level values and norms and corporate insiders’ preferences. We find that corporate culture is highly persistent: firms with strong (or weak) cultures tend to remain so over the subsequent decade. The majority of the variation in culture is explained by firm fixed effects, reflecting initial cultural imprints around founding. Leveraging rich data on founder characteristics, we show that initial culture is shaped by founders’ cultural heritage, the racial diversity of their birthplace, and the business environment at the start of their careers. We also provide suggestive evidence that firm-CEO (firm-employee) matching on values, as well as the influence of culture on CEOs, contribute to culture persistence. Overall, our findings suggest that a firm’s founding imprint—reinforced through CEO/employee selection, attrition, and workplace norms—helps explain the enduring nature of corporate culture.