IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/13894.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do Short-Term Incentives Affect Long-Term Productivity?

Author

Listed:
  • Fos, Vyacheslav
  • Almeida, Heitor
  • Ersahin, Nuri
  • Irani, Rustom M
  • ,

Abstract

Previous research shows that stock repurchases that are caused by earnings management lead to reductions in firm-level investment and employment. It is natural to expect firms to cut less productive investment and employment first, which could lead to a positive effect on firm-level productivity. However, using Census data, we find that firms make cuts across the board irrespective of plant productivity. This pattern seems to be associated with frictions in the labor market. Specifically, we find evidence that unionization of the labor force may prevent firms from doing efficient downsizing, forcing them to engage in easy or expedient downsizing instead. As a result of this inefficient downsizing, EPS-driven repurchases lead to a reduction in long-term productivity.

Suggested Citation

  • Fos, Vyacheslav & Almeida, Heitor & Ersahin, Nuri & Irani, Rustom M & ,, 2019. "Do Short-Term Incentives Affect Long-Term Productivity?," CEPR Discussion Papers 13894, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13894
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP13894
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brav, Alon & Jiang, Wei & Ma, Song & Tian, Xuan, 2018. "How does hedge fund activism reshape corporate innovation?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(2), pages 237-264.
    2. Eugene F. Fama & Kenneth R. French, 2001. "Disappearing Dividends: Changing Firm Characteristics Or Lower Propensity To Pay?," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 14(1), pages 67-79, March.
    3. Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Rajgopal, Shiva, 2005. "The economic implications of corporate financial reporting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1-3), pages 3-73, December.
    4. Matthew Serfling, 2016. "Firing Costs and Capital Structure Decisions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(5), pages 2239-2286, October.
    5. Steven J. Davis & John C. Haltiwanger & Scott Schuh, 1998. "Job Creation and Destruction," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262540932, April.
    6. Alex Edmans & Vivian W. Fang & Katharina A. Lewellen, 2017. "Equity Vesting and Investment," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(7), pages 2229-2271.
    7. Lucia Foster & Cheryl Grim & John Haltiwanger, 2016. "Reallocation in the Great Recession: Cleansing or Not?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(S1), pages 293-331.
    8. Steven N. Kaplan, 2018. "Are US Companies Too Short-Term Oriented? Some Thoughts," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(1), pages 107-124.
    9. Lucian A. Bebchuk & Alon Brav & Wei Jiang, 2015. "The Long-Term Effects of Hedge Fund Activism," NBER Working Papers 21227, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Hribar, Paul & Jenkins, Nicole Thorne & Johnson, W. Bruce, 2006. "Stock repurchases as an earnings management device," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1-2), pages 3-27, April.
    11. Nuri Ersahin, 2018. "Creditor Rights, Technology Adoption, and Productivity: Plant-Level Evidence," Working Papers 18-20, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    12. Almeida, Heitor & Fos, Vyacheslav & Kronlund, Mathias, 2016. "The real effects of share repurchases," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(1), pages 168-185.
    13. Alon Brav & Wei Jiang & Hyunseob Kim, 2015. "Editor's Choice The Real Effects of Hedge Fund Activism: Productivity, Asset Allocation, and Labor Outcomes," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(10), pages 2723-2769.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Autore, Don M. & Clarke, Nicholas & Liu, Baixiao, 2019. "Activist investors and open market share repurchases," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Zhang, Shuran, 2021. "Directors’ career concerns: Evidence from proxy contests and board interlocks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(3), pages 894-915.
    3. Lel, Ugur & Tepe, Mete, 2021. "Investor horizon and managerial short-termism," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1-20.
    4. Jha, Anand & Kulchania, Manoj & Kwon, Min-Jeong, 2022. "Stock repurchasing and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    5. Yuan‐Teng Hsu & Chia‐Wei Huang, 2020. "Why do stock repurchases change over time?," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 26(4), pages 938-957, September.
    6. Keusch, Thomas, 2021. "Shareholder Activists and Frictions in the CEO Labor Market," LawFin Working Paper Series 19, Goethe University, Center for Advanced Studies on the Foundations of Law and Finance (LawFin).
    7. Ma, Pengfei & Li, Chengcheng & Wang, Xiaoqiong, 2024. "Why do undervalued firms repurchase shares? Evidence based on the market-timing effect in China," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    8. Moore, David, 2023. "Strategic repurchases and equity sales: Evidence from equity vesting schedules," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    9. Oehler, Andreas & Schmitz, Jonas Tobias, 2021. "Does intensified communication of hedge funds with letters affect abnormal returns?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 127-142.
    10. Gantchev, Nickolay & Sevilir, Merih & Shivdasani, Anil, 2020. "Activism and empire building," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(2), pages 526-548.
    11. Bessler, Wolfgang & Vendrasco, Marco, 2022. "Corporate control and shareholder activism in Germany: An empirical analysis of hedge fund strategies," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    12. Lily Nguyen & Le Vu & Xiangkang Yin, 2021. "Share repurchases and firm innovation," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(S1), pages 1665-1695, April.
    13. Ni, Xiaoran & Song, Wei & Yao, Jiaquan, 2020. "Stakeholder orientation and corporate payout policy: Insights from state legal shocks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    14. Qilong Cao & Meng Ju & Jinglei Li & Changbao Zhong, 2022. "Managerial Myopia and Long-Term Investment: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-20, December.
    15. Alquhaif, Abdulsalam & Al-Gamrh, Bakr & Abdul Latif, Rohaida, 2020. "An overview of share buybacks: A descriptive case from Malaysia," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C).
    16. Szu-Yin (Jennifer) Wu & Kee H. Chung, 2022. "Hedge Fund Activism and Corporate M&A Decisions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(2), pages 1378-1403, February.
    17. Swanson, Edward P. & Young, Glen M. & Yust, Christopher G., 2022. "Are all activists created equal? The effect of interventions by hedge funds and other private activists on long-term shareholder value," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    18. Kim, Sehoon, 2020. "Disappearing Discounts: Hedge Fund Activism in Conglomerates," MPRA Paper 100876, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Kumar, Praveen & Langberg, Nisan & Oded, Jacob & Sivaramakrishnan, K., 2017. "Voluntary disclosure and strategic stock repurchases," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 207-230.
    20. Fos, Vyacheslav & Appel, Ian & Bulka, Jordan, 2019. "Active Short Selling by Hedge Funds," CEPR Discussion Papers 13788, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Productivity; Employment; Labor unions; investment; Short-termism; Share repurchases;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G35 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Payout Policy
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13894. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.