“安居”才能“乐业”——基于员工购房压力与企业创新的检验

“To Live Comfortably” and Then “to Work Happily”:Evidence on How Employees’ Stress of House Purchase Affects Corporate Innovation

以2007—2017年我国沪深A股上市公司为样本,考察员工购房压力对企业创新的影响。研究发现,企业员工经济收入与居住成本的高度不匹配显著抑制了企业创新,即员工购房压力越大,企业的创新产出越少,且该结论在经过一系列稳健性测试后依然成立。作用机制检验结果表明,购房压力通过加剧企业员工流失、抑制员工在创新活动中的积极性与创造性,进而对企业创新产生负面影响。进一步研究显示:购房压力对企业创新的抑制作用在高学历员工占比高、行业竞争激烈、高新技术行业的公司中更加显著,而在较为成熟、所在城市交通便利、劳动力供给充足的企业中有所缓解;员工购房压力会阻碍创新投入与创新产出向企业价值转化。

Based on the sample of A-shared listed companies in China from 2007 to 2017, this paper studies the impact of employees’ stress of house purchase on corporate innovation. The empirical results indicate that the high mismatch between economic income of employees and their housing cost significantly impedes corporate innovation. Namely, the greater the stress of employees’ house purchase is, the less the innovation output of enterprises will be, and the conclusion is still valid after a series of robustness tests. The mechanism test results suggest that the stress of house purchase exerts negative influence on corporate innovation through exacerbating employee turnover and inducing lower motivation and creativity in employees’ research and development activities. Further analyses show that the restraining effect of house purchase on corporate innovation is more pronounced in companies with a high proportion of highly educated employees, fierce industry competition, and high-tech industries, and it is alleviated in companies that are more mature, located in cities with convenient transportation, and with abundant labor supply. The employees’ stress of house purchase impedes the transformation of innovation input and innovation output to company value.