Private Equity and Workers’ Career Paths: The Role of Technological Change
研究私募股权投资对工人职业路径的正面溢出效应，发现被收购公司员工获得可转移的IT互补人力资本，长期就业能力和工资均提升。
We analyze a new dataset on workers’ career paths to examine whether private equity (PE) investments can have positive spillover effects on workers. We study leveraged buyouts in the context of recent information technology (IT) diffusion, and find evidence supporting the argument that many employees of companies acquired by PE investors gain transferable, IT-complementary human capital. Our estimates indicate that these workers experience increases in both long-run employability and wages relative to what they would have realized in the absence of PE investment. The findings underscore PE’s role in mitigating the effects of workforce skill obsolescence resulting from technological change. Received November 3, 2014; accepted December 23, 2015 by Editor Francesca Cornelli.