← Search

Journal of Accounting Research Vol. 39 No. 2 2001

Equity Risk and the Labor Stock: The Case of Union Contracts

Joshua G. Rosett

Tulane University

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of the stock of unionized labor in determining equity investment risk. I estimate a labor stock measure based on expected compensation costs, and use the ratio of labor stock to total assets as a risk proxy. At the median, the labor stock is comparable in magnitude to total assets. Regression estimates show the associations between labor‐based risk proxies and equity market risk measures are both economically and statistically significant. In addition, the labor‐based measures provide risk information over and above information contained in standard risk proxies such as financial and operating leverage.

DOI
10.1111/1475-679x.00016
Volume
39
Issue
2
Pages
337-364
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite