3 Years at Silicon Valley

A Theory of Silicon Valley

This paper presents a model of the software-focused, venture-backed entrepreneurship found in the San Francisco Bay Area, or “Silicon Valley.” Three kinds of markets matter in the model: (1) the financial market for venture capital, (2) the labor market for engineers, and (3) the collection of product markets successful technology companies serve. The key economic actors are elite “engineers” w...

Solar energy innovation and Silicon Valley

The growth of the U. S. and global solar energy industry depends on a strong relationship between science and engineering innovation, manufacturing, and cycles of policy design and advancement. The mixture of the academic and industrial engine of innovation that is Silicon Valley, and the strong suite of environmental policies for which California is a leader work together to both drive the sol...

A Price Theory of Silicon Valley

I develop a model of Silicon Valley engineer labor and venture capital (VC) markets. Software engineers choose between joining an established software company or founding a venture-backed startup. In equilibrium, they are indifferent between entrepreneurship and employment. The model predicts equilibrium markets wages, the terms of VC investments (i.e., the fraction of equity retained by the en...

Valley degeneracies in (111) silicon quantum wells

The BAMMF Series in Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley is home to many of the world’s largest technology corporations, as well as thousands of small startups. Despite the development of other high-tech economic centers throughout the US and around the world, Silicon Valley continues to be a leading hub for high-tech innovation and development, in part because most of its companies and universities are within 20 miles of each other. G...