Talent in Distressed Firms: Investigating the Labor Costs of Financial Distress
134 Pages Posted: 20 Oct 2016 Last revised: 14 Jan 2020
There are 2 versions of this paper
Talent in Distressed Firms: Investigating the Labor Costs of Financial Distress
Talent in Distressed Firms: Investigating the Labor Costs of Financial Distress
Date Written: January 14, 2020
Abstract
The importance of skilled labor and the inalienability of human capital expose firms to the risk of losing talent in critical times. Using Swedish micro-data, 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 is driving 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.
Keywords: Bankruptcy, Talent, Distress, Costs of Financial Distress, Labor Fragility, Leverage
JEL Classification: G32, G33, J63 M54
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation