Human Capital Investment Effects On Firm Returns

Abstract

This paper demonstrates that two measures of firm investment in specific human capital are significantly and positively correlated with long-term rates of return on investment. The final sample of 260 firms is a subset of the 805 firms included in the June 1984 edition of Forbes survey of executive compensation. We utilize two proxies for firm return-net income and cash flow. The return measures are scaled by both book value of total assets and market value of common stock yielding four alternative specifications of the rate of return measure. The firm investment in specific human capital measures are generally found to be significant explanatory variables in the regressions that have returns scaled by book value of assets. These measures of investment are insignificant when market value of common stock outstanding is used to scale the return measures. We interpret these findings to imply that a public or regulatory policy needs to be established to require firms to include at least some basic rudimentary information regarding their human capital investment, such as turnover rates and training cots, in their annual reports.