Talent in Distressed Firms: Investigating the Labor Costs of Financial Distress

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Baghai, Ramin P.; Silva, Rui C.; Thell, Viktor; Vig, Vikrant
• 署名单位: Stockholm School of Economics; Universidade Nova de Lisboa; University of London; London Business School; Northwestern University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1082
• DOI: 10.1111/jofi.13077
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 2907-2961
• 关键词: capital structure; constraints; PROTECTION; benefits

摘要

The importance of skilled labor and the inalienability of human capital expose firms to the risk of losing talent at critical times. Using Swedish microdata, we document that firms lose workers with the highest cognitive and noncognitive skills as they approach bankruptcy. In a quasi-experiment, we confirm that financial distress drives these results: following a negative export shock caused by exogenous currency movements, talent abandons the firm, but only if the exporter is highly leveraged. Consistent with talent dependence being associated with higher labor costs of financial distress, firms that rely more on talent have more conservative capital structures.