Essays on labor and stock returns

Abstract

This dissertation includes four essays on labor and stock returns. The first study shows that firms with low labor turnover have higher stock returns because they are more exposed to aggregate risk. The second study measures a firm’s human capital quality embedded in the organization capital and confirms that firms with a higher quality of human capital generate higher stock returns. The third study proposes a measure of the hiring rate in excess of that implied by investment rates, named excess hiring rates, and reveals that firms with high excess hiring rates earn higher risk-adjusted returns. The last study documents the role of aggregate recruiting intensity in asset prices by showing that stocks whose returns are more sensitive to aggregate recruiting intensity have higher returns.