Speaker: Jan Bena (University of British Columbia)

Time: 10:30-12:00 am, April 25, 2023, GMT+8

Venue: Zoom Meeting ID: 926 3889 7210 Passcode: 908060

Abstract:

Entrepreneurs with better diversified portfolios provide more insurance to employees against labor income risk: in a sample of over 524,000 Canadian firms and 858,000 owners, firms owned by more diversified entrepreneurs offer more stable jobs and earnings to employees when hit by shocks. A one standard deviation increase in owner’s diversification reduces the shock’s pass-through rate to labor layoffs by 13% and to workers’ earnings by 41%. The data are consistent with such insurance being partly provided to retain valuable human capital and partly to avoid costly terminations.

Biography:

Jan Bena is an Associate Professor in the Finance Division at the Sauder School of Business, the University of British Columbia (UBC). After an entrepreneurial spell combined with Ph.D. studies in economics at the Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education – Economics Institute (CERGE-EI) in Prague, Jan earned a Ph.D. in finance degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Jan joined the UBC Sauder School in 2009.

Source: National School of Development