We examine the effects of majority buyout investments on employment numbers in unlisted firms and businesses taken private in Japan between 1998 and 2015. In our sample (n=184), regular employment grows at an uncorrected average of 12.3% during a mean holding period of 4.3 years, and an annual growth differential of +1.7pp relative to a matched-pairs sample. Evidence from field interviews indicates that the positive growth differential primarily results from funds not cutting jobs beyond a certain threshold for reputational concerns. These concerns moderate the decisions of funds at two stages in the investment process: funds tend to avoid investing in businesses with major restructuring needs, and to prefer growth-centred to cost-cutting strategies. The effect on employment differs neither between foreign and domestic investors, nor between domestic funds owned by management and domestic funds owned by large financial or corporate groups. This implies that the reputational concerns outweigh differences in ownership and origin.

在1998年至2015年间，我们研究了多数股权收购投资对日本非上市公司和私有企业中就业人数的影响。在我们的样本（n = 184）中，在平均持有期间，正常就业的平均增长率为未经修正的12.3％。 4.3年，相对于配对对样本，年增长率为+ 1.7pp。实地访谈的证据表明，正增长差异主要是由于基金没有裁员超过声誉关注的特定门槛所致。这些担忧在投资过程的两个阶段中缓和了基金的决策：基金倾向于避免对有重大重组需求的企业进行投资，并且倾向于以增长为中心而不是削减成本的战略。外国和国内投资者对就业的影响均不相同，管理层拥有的国内资金与大型金融集团或公司集团拥有的国内资金之间也是如此。这意味着声誉方面的关注大于所有权和来源方面的差异。