Labour market conditions and the corporate financing decision: A European analysis

This study examines the influence of labour market conditions on corporate capital structure in a sample of 2892 firms from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK. After considering the effect of unemployment and inflation, we analyse the impact of two market imperfections: employees’ rights and downward wage rigidity. Results indicate that financial leverage responds to changes in unemployment and inflation. We also find that the influence of employees’ rights is non-linear, whereas the negative effect of downward wage rigidity is moderated by firms’ market power. Taken together, our results show that corporate financial decisions are conditioned not only by firm-level issues but also by a country’s labour market.     

最低工资与企业创新

本文考察了最低工资对企业创新的影响。研究发现,最低工资显著促进了企业创新,通过相邻样本分析、双重差分策略以及其他一系列稳健性检验发现,结论基本稳健。最低工资改善了企业的物质资本,降低了低技能工人就业,提高了高技能工人就业,促进了企业人力资本优化,从而为企业创新提供了硬件和软件条件。企业实现创新的方式有自创和引进技术两种,最低工资提高了企业的创新效率。进一步研究发现,最低工资改善了企业的要素结构和全要素生产率。异质性分析发现,最低工资对劳动密集型企业、平均工资较低的企业、行业竞争激烈的企业以及高市场化地区企业的创新影响更加明显。本文的研究结果表明,最低工资政策具有促进企业创新升级的作用,这与党的十九届五中全会提出的“坚持创新驱动发展”的战略目标相一致。     

最低工资与企业创新

本文考察了最低工资对企业创新的影响。研究发现,最低工资显著促进了企业创新,通过相邻样本分析、双重差分策略以及其他一系列稳健性检验发现,结论基本稳健。最低工资改善了企业的物质资本,降低了低技能工人就业,提高了高技能工人就业,促进了企业人力资本优化,从而为企业创新提供了硬件和软件条件。企业实现创新的方式有自创和引进技术两种,最低工资提高了企业的创新效率。进一步研究发现,最低工资改善了企业的要素结构和全要素生产率。异质性分析发现,最低工资对劳动密集型企业、平均工资较低的企业、行业竞争激烈的企业以及高市场化地区企业的创新影响更加明显。本文的研究结果表明,最低工资政策具有促进企业创新升级的作用,这与党的十九届五中全会提出的“坚持创新驱动发展”的战略目标相一致。     

The bright side of the internal labor market: Evidence from the labor cost stickiness of firms affiliated with privately owned business groups in China

We examine whether having an internal labor market can help a firm affiliated with a privately owned business group (POBG) reduce labor cost stickiness. Our findings suggest that, when a POBG-affiliated firm experiences a decrease in sales, it has lower labor cost stickiness than an otherwise equivalent firm that is not affiliated with a POBG. Specifically, we find that, on average, a POBG-affiliated firm entirely mitigates labor cost stickiness when it has a decrease in sales. In addition, we document that, to adjust its labor cost downward, a POBG-affiliated firm hires fewer employees, rather than paying lower wages. We show that the lower labor cost stickiness is due to movement of employees from the focal firm to other firms within the same POBG. When sales fall, the POBG reallocates excess employees at the focal firm to other firms within the business group via an internal labor market, and the focal firm thereby increases its per capita profit. Moreover, we find that agency cost mediates the impact of a POBG on labor cost stickiness. When the external market is less effective or the POBG headquarters have strong incentives, the effect of POBG affiliation on the reduction in an affiliated firm's labor cost stickiness is more salient.     

企业内部薪酬差距与人力资本结构调整

本文考察薪酬差距如何影响企业内部的人力资本结构变动。基于员工不同教育程度划分人力资本层次,本文研究发现:(1)薪酬差距的增加显著降低了大学学历员工的比例,同时提升了高中及以下学历员工的比例;(2)通过构造工具变量和基于全球性经济危机的场景设定,我们发现薪酬差距和人力资本结构之间存在显著的因果关系;(3)在薪酬差距水平较高的情况下,薪酬差距的增加显著吸引了更有可能进入企业中高层的高学历员工。在薪酬差距水平较低的情况下,扩大薪酬差距显著提升(降低)了高中及以下学历(大学学历)员工比例,一个可能原因在于不同学历员工的议价能力存在差异。(4)薪酬差距与人力资本结构变化之间的相关性主要体现在规模较大、管理者平均年龄较低的企业。(5)人力资本结构在薪酬差距影响创新的过程中发挥了显著的中介效应,薪酬差距提升了研究生和本科学历员工比例,促进了企业创新。     

Poverty alleviation and firm productivity: Evidence from China's minimum wage system

The reduction of income inequality is important for poverty alleviation. We manually collect the data of the local minimum wage standard of the 254 prefectural cities of 31 provinces in China. The results show that higher minimum wage attributes to the rise of firm productivity. Minimum wage hikes force the enterprises to optimize internal production, reduce redundant employees, and develop innovations. Moreover, the enterprises with higher sensitivity in labor cost, less governmental support, and stronger financial pressures are more intensive to higher minimum wage. It is robust when choosing alternative measurements, an IV strategy, and a DID analysis. It is implicated that an appropriate minimum wage system plays a positive role in achieving balance between poverty alleviation and economic growth, and the improvement in compensation can stimulate high-quality development in practice.     

Firm Value,Information Problems and the Internal Capital Market

We examine how information problems between the firm and the investor affect the value of an internal capital market. While the extant literature finds that, on average, the diversified firm's access to an internal capital market is positively related to firm value, this paper finds that the results hold only for firms which face low levels of information problems. Firms facing the high levels of information problems realize no value from internal capital market access, consistent with the Jensen Free Cash Flow hypothesis. When information problems are large, agency costs dominate any savings that result from using an internal capital market to avoid selling under-priced securities in the external capital markets.     

Capital market frictions and human capital investment: Evidence from workplace safety around regulation SHO

This paper examines the effect of capital market frictions on firms’ workplace safety. Using Regulation SHO as a natural experiment, we find a significant increase in work-related injury rates of pilot firms. The effect is stronger for firms in more competitive industries and with high financial constraints, and weaker for firms whose employees have high negotiating power and with good corporate governance. Further tests suggest that managers’ myopia shifts their focus away from investments in workplace safety when workplace safety is not related to firm performance. Overall, the results highlight how capital market frictions affect firms’ investment in human capital.     

企业出口与工资差距——来自中国制造业的证据

从世界银行企业投资调查数据中可以发现,中国出口企业内部的工资差距高于非出口企业。由于处在生产技术结构与所在地区比较优势更为接近的行业中的企业,在没有保护和补贴的情况下具有自生能力,能够获得较高的剩余,所以这类企业在开放竞争的条件下资本积累速度更快,在资本技术互补的假设下,增加了对更高技能劳动力的需求。出口对企业内高级管理者与中层管理者及普通员工的工资收入差距具有正向影响,当产业的资本劳动比与整个制造业的资本劳动比越接近时,出口对企业内收入差距的影响越大。     

Information Disclosure to Employees and Rational Expectations: A Game-Theoretical Perspective

This paper analyses the voluntary disclosure strategies of a privately informed firm manager when the information is relevant to both a financial market for valuation purposes and a union for wage bargaining purposes. Disclosure of favourable information may adversely affect the terms under which the firm can secure the required flow of labour and may thus lead to a decrease in the firm's market value. The paper shows that both a full-disclosure and a nondisclosure equilibrium may exist, which contradicts an earlier analysis of the issue made by Pope and Peel (1981).     

资本支出、公司规模与账面市值比效应——基于A股上市公司的研究

基于成熟资本市场的理论及实证研究表明,在不确定的环境下,公司最优资本支出提高了市场价值,降低了账面市值比,账面市值比对收益率的预测作用可以通过公司的最优投资行为来解释。基于这一机制,本文对我国上市公司规模、资本支出及账面市值比效应进行了研究。我们发现,第一,按照Fama-French(1992,1993)方法构建投资组合的潜在条件同样是公司前期的资本支出,本期资本支出在提高公司市场价值的同时,非但没有降低反而提高了小规模组公司期末账面市值比;第二,控制规模的情况下,资本支出较显著降低了公司的预期收益,在大规模公司中表现最明显;第三,本期资本支出对规模效应具有一定解释力,但对账面市值比效应并不具有显著解释力;第四,我国上市公司股票价格变动更多由会计业绩变动决定而非风险变动所决定,据此对上述发现作出了尝试性的解释。     

秘密握手协议、生产率传递与工资的规模溢价

头部企业为什么能打破市场均衡而将生产率优势转化为工资租？理论分析表明,市场份额越大,雇主与雇员之间越易达成“秘密握手协议”,即通过联合来操纵劳动供给,以抬高人均生产率并进行分割。在这一过程中,员工分割比例虽有所下降,但不足以抵消人均生产率上升的影响,进而产生工资租。以上市公司为例,市场份额位于前10%的头部企业,人均生产率对工资的传递力度仅比市场份额位于中位值附近的企业低4%,但人均生产率却高出40%以上,直接导致了较高的工资优势。进一步借鉴Blanchard and Summers(1986)的方法进行检验,发现头部企业确实存在更明显的“合谋”迹象,程度比中位值附近的企业高出近一倍。“秘密握手协议”的本质是通过限制劳动力流动阻碍工资均等化,在扎实推进共同富裕的道路上,不仅要反产品市场垄断,也要防范不合理攫取生产率红利的行为。     

Purpose,profit and social pressure

We develop a model in which there are firms and employees who care about profit-sacrificing higher purpose (HP) and those who do not. Firms and employees search for each other in the labor market. Each firm chooses its HP investment. When there is no social pressure on firms to adopt a purpose, HP dissipates agency frictions, lowers wage costs, yet elicits higher employee effort in firms that intrinsically value the purpose. However, social pressure to invest in HP can distort the HP investments of all firms and reduce welfare by making all agents worse off. Applications of these results to banking are discussed.     

进口与企业员工收入——以中国制造业企业为例

进口企业的职工工资直接关系到企业员工的民生福祉和劳动力市场的就业稳定性。本文基于中国制造业微观企业数据,就进口贸易对企业职工收入的影响进行深入考察,结果表明:(1)进口有利于提高企业职工的平均工资水平,不过这种正向的“工资提升”效应在长期不具有持续性。(2)中介效应检验表明,进口通过竞争效应和激励效应作用于企业的工资水平。进一步使用倍差法、工具变量法等的估计结果也证实了上述结论的稳健性。(3)进口对企业工资水平的影响因企业所有制、是否出口、进口产品类型以及进口来源国的不同而具有显著的异质性。(4)引入劳动收入份额的分析表明,进口显著降低了企业的劳动收入份额。具体地,进口的“生产率提升效应”影响超过了“工资提升效应”影响。     

Managerial Incentives and Internal Capital Markets

Capital budgeting in multidivisional firms depends on the external assessment of the whole firm, as well as on headquarters' assessment of the divisions. While corporate headquarters may create value by directly monitoring divisions, the external assessment of the firm is a public good for division managers who, consequently, are tempted to free ride. As the number of divisions increases, the free‐rider problem is aggravated, and internal capital markets substitute for external capital markets in the provision of managerial incentives. The analysis relates the value of diversification to characteristics of the firm, the industry, and the capital market.     

最低工资标准提高对企业资本劳动比的影响研究

资本劳动比的提高对企业发展、经济增长和结构转型都具有重要意义。本文利用2002—2011年中国工业企业数据和283个地级市统计数据,探讨了最低工资标准提高对企业资本劳动比的影响。研究发现,最低工资标准提升对制造业企业资本劳动比具有显著的正向影响。平均而言,最低工资标准每提升10%,企业资本劳动比将提高2%,该结果在工具变量回归、双重差分法等多项稳健性检验下均成立。机制分析表明,最低工资标准提高会使企业增加资本投入和减少劳动力雇佣,这一结论为企业用资本替代劳动力的事实提供了直接证据。异质性分析表明,最低工资标准提升对企业资本劳动比的影响主要集中于非国有企业、较低工资水平企业和劳动密集型企业。进一步研究发现,随着最低工资标准提升,企业生产率和盈利能力显著提高,从而佐证了企业用资本替代劳动力的积极效应。本文的研究为进一步完善最低工资制度,促进经济转型升级提供了经验依据与政策启示。     

Worker replacement

Consider a labor market in which firms want to insure existing employees against income fluctuations and, simultaneously, want to recruit new employees to fill vacant jobs. Firms can commit to a wage policy, i.e. a policy that specifies the wage paid to their employees as a function of tenure, productivity and other observables. However, firms cannot commit to employ workers. In this environment, the optimal wage policy prescribes not only a rigid wage for senior workers, but also a downward rigid wage for new hires. The downward rigidity in the hiring wage magnifies the response of unemployment to negative shocks.     

进口与企业员工收入——以中国制造业企业为例

进口企业的职工工资直接关系到企业员工的民生福祉和劳动力市场的就业稳定性。本文基于中国制造业微观企业数据,就进口贸易对企业职工收入的影响进行深入考察,结果表明:(1)进口有利于提高企业职工的平均工资水平,不过这种正向的“工资提升”效应在长期不具有持续性。(2)中介效应检验表明,进口通过竞争效应和激励效应作用于企业的工资水平。进一步使用倍差法、工具变量法等的估计结果也证实了上述结论的稳健性。(3)进口对企业工资水平的影响因企业所有制、是否出口、进口产品类型以及进口来源国的不同而具有显著的异质性。(4)引入劳动收入份额的分析表明,进口显著降低了企业的劳动收入份额。具体地,进口的“生产率提升效应”影响超过了“工资提升效应”影响。     

Information asymmetry and investment–cash flow sensitivity

Models of capital market imperfections predict that information asymmetry decreases firm investment and increases the sensitivity of investment expenditures to fluctuations in internal funds. Previous empirical tests of the link between investment and financing decisions have relied on indirect measures of financial constraint due to market frictions. In contrast, we use more direct measures derived from the market microstructure literature. Consistent with the theoretical predictions, our analysis shows that scaled investment expenditures are on average lower and the investment–cash flow sensitivity is greater when the probability of informed trading is high. Our results are robust to alternative measures of informed trading and liquidity, but they are not pervasive in our sample.     

The effect of bank monitoring on the investment behavior of Spanish firms

There is a large body of theoretical work that shows that information problems in the capital market have important effects on both the financial structure and the investment policy of the firm. These information problems arise when debt and equity are diffusely held and no individual investor has an incentive to monitor the firm. We test the hypothesis that banks can compensate for capital market imperfections due to asymmetric information. We find that the neoclassical investment model cannot be rejected for a sample of Spanish firms with a close bank relationship while it is rejected for the subsample made up of the remaining firms. An augmented model incorporating borrowing constraints yields the opposite results. These results suggest that banks may play a role in alleviating capital market imperfections in Spain.