Do Financial Market Developments Benefit Employees? Evidence from the Derivatives Markets
研究发现股票期权和信用违约互换的活跃交易能显著提升员工福利，包括更高的ESG评分、满意度、安全性和薪酬，并促进人力资本投资，其机制是缓解管理者短视行为。
Abstract Do financial derivatives influence firms’ fulfillment of their ethical responsibilities toward employees? Drawing on stakeholder theory and corporate moral responsibility, we examine whether trading in equity options and credit default swaps (CDSs) influences employee welfare in underlying firms. We find that active derivatives trading is associated with significant improvements in employee welfare, including higher ESG employee scores, greater employee satisfaction, safer workplaces, and better compensation. Firms also increase investments in human capital when options or CDSs are actively traded on their equity or debt instruments. Further analysis suggests that derivatives trading improves employee welfare by mitigating managerial short-termism and encouraging stakeholder oriented decision making. Overall, our findings suggest that financial derivatives can strengthen firms’ ethical accountability to employees.