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Journal of Corporate Finance Vol. 10 No. 4 2004

Stock options and employees' firm-specific human capital under the threat of divestitures and acquisitions

Hiroshi Osano

Kyoto University

Abstract

This paper considers whether the first-best level of firm-specific human capital investment is attained by the use of stock option plans for workers and stock offers in acquisitions even though workers are threatened with the possibility of a divestiture and acquisition. We show that the first-best level of investment is achieved by a stock option plan with a positive exercise price for workers conditional on the event of a divestiture. We also suggest that, under certain conditions, a stock offer in acquisition can resolve a collusion problem between the target firm (TF) and its workers.

DOI
10.1016/s0929-1199(03)00026-9
Volume
10
Issue
4
Pages
615-638
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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