Human Capital Disclosure and Workforce Turnover

44 Pages Posted: 11 Jan 2022 Last revised: 19 Sep 2022

See all articles by Peter H. Haslag

Peter H. Haslag

Vanderbilt University - Finance

Berk A. Sensoy

Vanderbilt University - Finance

Joshua T. White

Vanderbilt University - Finance

Date Written: September 17, 2022

Abstract

Human capital is a primary source of value in modern firms, yet little is known about what employee information firms disclose and whether it is timely and informative. We examine the determinants of firms' human capital disclosures by combining textual analysis with a proprietary dataset on 45 million individual career histories. We show that human capital disclosures respond to changes in the underlying stock and flow of employees, suggesting changes in disclosure are informative. Two SEC rule changes that encourage but do not require specific human capital information elicit greater disclosures, especially from firms that previously under-disclosed workforce information.

Keywords: Human capital, employee turnover, competition, SEC disclosure regulation, textual analysis

JEL Classification: G38, J60, M41, M48

Suggested Citation

Haslag, Peter H. and Sensoy, Berk A. and White, Joshua T., Human Capital Disclosure and Workforce Turnover (September 17, 2022). Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management Research Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3991257 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3991257

Peter H. Haslag (Contact Author)

Vanderbilt University - Finance ( email )

401 21st Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37203
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.sites.google.com/site/peterhaslag/

Berk A. Sensoy

Vanderbilt University - Finance ( email )

401 21st Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37203
United States

Joshua T. White

Vanderbilt University - Finance ( email )

401 21st Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37203
United States

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