기업의 사회공헌활동과 노동투자효율성

This paper examines the relationship between the level of corporate social responsibility activities and labor investment efficiency. As it is difficult to immediately reduce the number of employees after hiring and labor costs are incurred continuously, firms should manage the investment at an appropriate level. However, agency problems such as pursuit of private interest may lead to over-hiring of employees, and the risk aversion of managers may result in under-hiring of employees. This study investigates whether firms with excellent social contribution activities show efficiency in labor investment as prior studies have documented that corporate social responsibility leads to higher information transparency. The level of corporate social responsibility activities are measured using KEJI Index, and the labor investment efficiency is computed using models developed by Pinnuck and Lillis (2007). Larger difference between the actual level of labor investment and the appropriate level of labor investment indicates inefficieny in labor investment. Labor investment inefficiency is defined as the absolute value of the difference between the actual and appropriate level of labor investment. Using firms listed on the Korean Stock Exchange from 2011 to 2020, companies with excellent social contribution activities are involved in efficient labor investment. The level of corporate social contribution activities show a significantly negative relationship with inefficient labor investment when the sample was divided into over- and under-investment groups. The results indicate that the information environment of firms actively engaged in social contribution activities reduces information asymmetry between inside and outside stakeholders, and controls opportunistic decision-making by managers, resulting in lower labor investment inefficiency. In additional analysis, the negative relationship between active social contribution activities and labor investment inefficiency was stronger for firms with higher information asymmetry. In addition, a two-stage regression analysis was performed to control endogeneity for robustness test and the results were consistent with the main analysis results. This study intends to expand the previous studies that have investigated factors affecting human capital investment by examining whether firms that are active in social contribution activities engage in efficient labor investment. The results of this study suggests that as labor investment is directly related to corporate competitiveness, information asymmetry may affect the investment efficiency. Further, the results can be used as a basis for future labor investment policies.