Purpose

The research aims to examine the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on a company's behaviour concerning its human capital. Additionally, the difference in effect for companies with specific human capital is analysed.

Design/methodology/approach

The hypotheses are tested on a multi-industry sample of large public companies from five European countries, using panel data modelling. The index of Baker et al. (2016) is used to measure EPU.

Findings

In the case of increasing EPU on one standard deviation, companies tend to reduce their human capital by approximately 1.7%. Moreover, despite theoretical assumptions, the effect on companies with more specific human capital is twice stronger. The heterogeneity of effect across countries and industries is also present.

Practical implications

Regulators and governments should consciously introduce changes in relation to regulations and decrease the uncertainty of economic policy to stimulate corporate investments in human capital.

Originality/value

This is the first study that considers the mechanism of EPU and its influence on corporate human capital. The results suggest that concerns regarding economic policy cause companies to reduce human capital.

中文翻译：

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经济政策不确定性与公司人力资本

目的

该研究旨在检验经济政策不确定性 (EPU) 对公司人力资本行为的影响。此外，分析了具有特定人力资本的公司的效果差异。

设计/方法/方法

假设使用面板数据模型对来自五个欧洲国家的大型上市公司的多行业样本进行了测试。Baker等人的指数。(2016) 用于测量 EPU。

发现

在增加一个标准差的 EPU 的情况下，公司倾向于将其人力资本减少约 1.7%。此外，尽管有理论假设，但对具有更具体人力资本的公司的影响要强两倍。不同国家和行业的影响也存在异质性。

实际影响

监管者和政府应有意识地引入法规变化，减少经济政策的不确定性，以刺激企业对人力资本的投资。

原创性/价值

这是第一个考虑EPU机制及其对企业人力资本影响的研究。结果表明，对经济政策的担忧导致公司减少人力资本。