Postgraduate research opportunities Employment protection & firm-level employee layoffs

The frequency of employee layoffs has increased over time despite evidence that layoffs do not benefit individual companies. The rising risk of unemployment, social unrest and political polarization, is in the top-10 risks in the World Economic Forum’s 2023 Global Risks Report.

Layoffs have wider adverse effects such as stress and mortality. To mitigate the negative effects of layoffs, regional and national governments have legislated on protections to employees from sudden mass layoffs. For instance, the OECD provides a summary of the variation in employment protection laws across countries.

Layoffs also have negative reputational effects for a company and its CEO and carry a political cost. This is why managers make corporate employment decisions that help politicians in their re-election efforts but negatively affect firm profitability.

This project will examine the role of political connections of company CEOs and political protections of employee rights in the propensity of layoffs and the stock price response to layoff announcements.

Further information

The student will benefit from supervision by Dr Patrick McColgan, who has published several papers on employee layoffs. The second supervisor is Professor Dimitris Andriosopoulos, who is an expert on corporate finance including the social finance aspect of this project and the causal inference methods employed in the work.

The student will benefit from opportunities to participate in the International Accounting & Finance Doctoral Symposium and conference / workshop events hosted by ReBI where leading experts in the Responsible Business and Sustainable Finance space will be participating. ReBI plans to host an annual conference of leading academics tied to special issues of internationally recognised and leading journals. Hence, providing the student multiple opportunities to present their work and receive feedback from leading academics. Finally, the student will be offered opportunities to visit international collaborators through the Financial Management Association (FMA) networks of the department.