What I had in mind was the latter. My intuitions clearly point that way in a smaller pool of investment. Take venture capital. If you add $1m of funding, then the low hanging fruit might already be picked, and so you go broke. Alternatively, the other companies will run out of promising startups to fund, and will pull some of their money. Probably, the same thing would happen on a larger scale with the entire US economy.
On the other hand, if the startup is one that wasn’t able to get funding elsewhere, then your contribution is truly irreplaceable.
What I had in mind was the latter. My intuitions clearly point that way in a smaller pool of investment. Take venture capital. If you add $1m of funding, then the low hanging fruit might already be picked, and so you go broke. Alternatively, the other companies will run out of promising startups to fund, and will pull some of their money. Probably, the same thing would happen on a larger scale with the entire US economy.
On the other hand, if the startup is one that wasn’t able to get funding elsewhere, then your contribution is truly irreplaceable.
I’m no economist though.