This paper examines the effect of going public on firm-level employment. To establish a causal effect, we employ a novel data set of private firms to investigate employment growth in IPO firms relative to a group of firms that file for an IPO but subsequently withdraw their offering. We find that employment increases significantly after going public, and the increase is more pronounced in industries with requirements for highly skilled labor and greater dependence on external finance. Improved ability to undertake acquisitions and a strategic shift toward commercialization, rather than agency problems, explain employment growth. Overall, these results highlight the importance of going public for firms’ employment policies.

本文考察了上市对公司层面就业的影响。为了建立因果效应，我们使用了一组新的私营公司数据来调查 IPO 公司相对于一组申请 IPO 但随后撤回发行的公司的就业增长情况。我们发现，上市后就业增长显着，在对高技能劳动力需求和对外部融资依赖程度更高的行业中，增长更为明显。提高进行收购的能力和向商业化的战略转变，而不是代理问题，解释了就业增长。总的来说，这些结果强调了上市对公司就业政策的重要性。