Employee Welfare, Social Capital, and IPO Firm Survival

Abstract

We examine the impact of employee welfare and social capital on the prospect of firms remaining quoted on a stock exchange. We analyze a panel sample of US-listed firms from 2000 to 2016 and track the outcome to the end of 2021. We find that entrepreneurial firms remain listed longer when employee welfare is better, and firms are located in a better social capital region. We also find that employee welfare positively complements the impact of social capital on prolonging the likelihood of remaining quoted. Our results are robust to endogeneity, effects of financial crises and COVID-19, and various model specifications.