IPOs and Employment

This paper studies the relation between the going public decision and employment growth experienced by IPO firms. We find that a typical IPO firm in our sample hires twice more employees around its IPO than during its life as a private firm. The number of employees increases by 31% during the two-year period around the IPO. Evidence shows that the most likely channel through which IPO firms increase their employment levels is the relaxation of their financial constraints, allowing firms to access both equity and debt markets resulting in better funding of their growth opportunities and an increase of the firm’s human capital. We also examine the relation between employment growth and firm performance: IPO firms with greater employment growth exhibit better performance and lower delisting probability. Overall, these results highlight the importance of the IPO event and access to public capital markets for job creation by US firms.

Download Ellul's paper

This event is an Erasmus Finance Seminar. The Erasmus Finance Seminar series brings prominent researchers in Finance from all over the world to Rotterdam.