The (non-) effect of labor unionization on firm risk : Evidence from the options market

Ghaly, Mohamed and Kostakis, Alexandros and Stathopoulos, Konstantinos (2021) The (non-) effect of labor unionization on firm risk : Evidence from the options market. Journal of Corporate Finance, 66: 101816. ISSN 0929-1199

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Abstract

Labor unionization has no causal effect on firm risk. Using a regression discontinuity design to study the impact of labor union elections on option-implied firm risk, we find that unionization per se does not affect investor perceptions about firm price, tail, or variance risk. This finding is robust to studying very short (5-trading day) and long (up to 2-year) windows around the elections. Moreover, there is no unionization effect on firm risk either in subsets of firms facing strong union bargaining power, or with characteristics that prior literature identifies as important determinants of the effect of unionization on firm outcomes.

Item Type:

Journal Article

Journal or Publication Title:

Journal of Corporate Finance

Additional Information:

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Corporate Finance. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Corporate Finance, 66, 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2020.101816

Uncontrolled Keywords:

/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2000/2003

Subjects:

?? unionizationlabor poweroption-implied firm riskregression discontinuity designfinanceeconomics and econometricsbusiness and international managementstrategy and managementj51 g30 g32 ??

Departments:

Lancaster University Management School > Accounting & Finance

ID Code:

150318

Deposited By:

ep_importer_pure

Deposited On:

04 Jan 2021 09:35

Refereed?:

Yes

Published?:

Published

Last Modified:

02 Jul 2025 01:56

URI:

https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/150318