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The information externality of public firms’ employment in the municipal corporate bond market in China

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  • Han, Hongling
  • Mao, Yidan
  • Liu, Qiang

Abstract

This study focuses on the informativeness of the labour force in the municipal corporate bond (MCB) market in China. We aggregate the annual employment of public firms to the prefecture-city level and find that aggregate employment is positively associated with the scale of the MCB, while it is negatively associated with the issuing rate of the MCB. Further, we find that such information externality is conditional on the attributes of the employment characteristics, including the education, functional departments, and ownership nature. Mechanism analyses indicate that information accessibility, processing, dissemination, and efficacy are important channels through which aggregate employment exerts informativeness. The information externality is reinforced after an administration enhances the authenticity of employment information. This paper echoes previous studies of the macro value of aggregate firm-level information and enriches the literature in labour and finance by revealing that the labour dividend still exists and triggers the MCB issuance in China.

Suggested Citation

  • Han, Hongling & Mao, Yidan & Liu, Qiang, 2024. "The information externality of public firms’ employment in the municipal corporate bond market in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:asieco:v:95:y:2024:i:c:s1049007824001416
    DOI: 10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101846
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Regional labour intensity; municipal corporate bond; aggregate information; emerging market;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M54 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Labor Management
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence

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