Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis Vol. 58 No. 4 2023

Does Sunlight Kill Germs? Stock Market Listing and Workplace Safety

Claire Y. C. Liang¹; Yaxuan Qi²; Rengong Zhang²; Haoran Zhu³

¹ Georgetown University · ² City University of Hong Kong · ³ Southern University of Science and Technology

Abstract

This study highlights the positive impact of a stock market listing on workplace safety. We find that workplace injuries in publicly listed firms are lower than those in comparable private firms, and this effect relates to heightened monitoring by the media and regulators. The media pays more attention to public firms’ safety issues than to those of private firms, and the reduced media scrutiny due to local newspaper closures leads to greater increases in injuries in public firms. Regulators also monitor public firms more strictly, evidenced by a higher likelihood of nonroutine inspections and larger penalties for detected violations.

DOI

10.1017/s0022109022000631

Volume

58

Issue

4

Pages

1645-1674

Language

en

Sources

bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite

APA 7 MLA 9 Chicago (author–date) Harvard Elsevier Harvard (JFE, JBF…) The Accounting Review Academy of Management American Marketing Association INFORMS (Management Science) Copy citation Copied ✓