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Vera Rocha

Professor

Subjects
Entrepreneurship Startup Quantitative methods Job market Inclusion

Primary research areas

Entrepreneur­ship
I study entrepreneur­ship as a ca­reer and as a set­ting, of­ten us­ing em­ploy­er-em­ploy­ee linked data – for ex­ample, why and how people launch and grow ven­tures, how star­tups emerge and grow, and how entrepreneur­ship shapes in­di­vidu­al ca­reers and broad­er so­ci­ety.
Hu­man Cap­it­al
I ex­plore how founders and new hires shape or­gan­iz­a­tion­al suc­cess. In par­tic­u­lar, I ana­lyze in­di­vidu­al mo­bil­ity across firms and oc­cu­pa­tions, how or­gan­iz­a­tions hire, and how dif­fer­ent types of hu­man cap­it­al ex­plain dif­fer­ences in labor mar­ket out­comes and firm per­form­ance.
In­equal­ity
My re­search sheds light on how ca­reer trans­itions and or­gan­iz­a­tion­al prac­tices emerge and how they can cre­ate or re­duce in­equal­it­ies in the labor mar­ket. Among oth­er as­pects, I am broadly in­ter­ested in gender and mi­gra­tion.

My re­search ad­dresses in­equal­ity in work­places, ca­reers, and entrepreneur­ship.

I study how entrepreneurship and organizations shape careers, opportunities, and inequality. My work highlights how new ventures influence and respond to labor market dynamics, how founders’ choices affect venture success, and how hiring practices can widen or narrow social divides. 

I focus on various relevant questions: 

How startups create or limit opportunities for individuals. 

How different types of human capital help organizations thrive. 

How organizational practices widen or prevent inequality within workplaces and broader society. 

I seek to understand how people and organizations create opportunities together. Using country-level employer-employee linked data and rigorous empirical designs, I uncover patterns that help policymakers, founders, and managers design fairer and more effective practices. 

My ambition is to build knowledge that fosters inclusive, innovative, and equitable economies where entrepreneurship becomes a driver of opportunity rather than inequality. 

Recent research projects

Mul­ti­level Path­ways for In­teg­rat­ing Mar­gin­al­ized Groups (PAINT)

How can entrepreneur­ship, firms and com­munit­ies help refugees & people with crim­in­al re­cords in re­join­ing work? This pro­ject un­cov­ers strategies to re­duce in­equal­ity and foster in­clus­ive labor mar­kets
https://www.carlsbergfondet.dk/en/what-we-have-funded/CF21-0156