【主题】Commuting, Worker Performance and Retention: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in China
【报告人】施新政 (副教授, 清华大学)
【时间】4月2日（星期二） 16：30-18：00
【地点】经济学院楼401室
【语言】英文
【摘要/Abstract】We collect monthly, quarterly and annual data on worker compensation and other characteristics from two companies for a two year period prior to and after the opening of a new subway station, which significantly reduced and improved commute for a subset of workers. Consistent with a simple principal-agent model, where improvement in commute reduces the cost of effort for workers, we find a difference-in-differences (DID) increase in bonus (which is strongly correlated to worker-level performance measures) of 4.9% for affected workers relative to coworkers not impacted by the subway. As expected, the bonus increase is larger for subsets of workers with more variance in performance measures. The bonus increase is correlated with commute time saved, and lower for workers with access to technology that facilitated telecommuting. We find no evidence that worker performance improvements come from allocation of time savings from commute towards time at the workplace. We also find a significant relative decline in exit rate for affected workers. Analyses using a large sample of subway openings provide suggestive evidence that firm values are positively impacted as well.
