earticle

영어

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how labor unions affect firm values using the panel regression analysis. Our study was motivated by a recent article of "The World's Worst Countries For Workers" published by ITUC(International Trade Union Confederation) on May 19, 2014. The article granted Korea the level 5, 'No guarantee of rights,' out of possible five levels. The 23 countries including Korea, which received the level 5, are China, India, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and others. The low rating is not a surprise because Korean workers have worked for the second longest hours next to Mexico among 34 OECD(Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) member countries. After reading the ITUC article, we become curious how Korea could sustain its economic growth rate under the current working environments. Recent literature on corporate social responsibility(CSR) suggests that firms with 'good job strategy' may outperform firms without. Good job strategy may be costly to firms in the short term, but in the long run, firms can benefit from the strategy. As more and more employees are satisfied with their jobs thanks to higher salary and/or better working environment, they would be highly motivated, resulting in better productivity. Most researches on workers compensation find a positive relationship between compensation and productivity. In this study, we examine the effects of labor unions' roles on firm values using the sample of non-financial Korean firms listed on Korea Exchange from 1998 to 2012. We are interested in labor unions' roles because the literature on labor unions has had mixed results in terms of firms' performance. We use the level of labor union affiliation employee compensation level, and employment growth rate as proxies for labor unions' roles. The literature on labor union has a rich history, but there is little comprehensive study on how union related variables affect firm values. Our major findings from panel regression analysis are as follows. First, whether a firm has a labor union or not positively affects its value. Second, the ratio of labor union affiliation negatively affects firm values. Third, the level of employee compensation has a positive effect on firm values. Last, employment growth rate has a positive impact on firm values as well. Additionally, we separate our sample into two groups: one with a union and the other without a union, and find the similar results. Our results may imply the virtuous cycle nature of CSR: employees feel good about their job security thanks to the labor union, they receive reasonable compensation based on their skill sets, firms manage their human capital more efficiently so as to improve productivity, firms increase their values, with the increased capital, they can hire more skilled-employees by providing better compensation, then employees are satisfied with their jobs, which in turn generates better productivity. However, there is a caveat, though. An English idiom says "Too many cooks spoil the stew." It means, when you have too many people trying to make important decisions, then you usually have very little results. We can apply it to firms' management process. If the level of union participation exceeds certain threshold, it can have a negative effect on firm values because of the concern about union's heavy involvement in firms' management.

한국어

본 연구는 1998년부터 2012년까지 거래소에 상장되어 있는 비금융 기업을 대상으로 노동조합과 노동조합의 주요 협상 대상이라고 할 수 있는 노조가입 정도, 임금수준, 종업원 증가가 기업가치에 미치는 영향을 실증분석 하였다. 최근까지 노동조합과 임금, 노동조합과 고용에 관해서는 많은 연구결과가 발표되었으나, 노동조합의 존재 유무와 노동조합의 역할 관련 변수들이 기업가치에 미치는 영향에 대한 종합적인 실증연구는 다소 미흡하였다. 기업가치에 영향을 미치는 개별기업의 다양한 재무와 인사 데이터의 패널 분석 결과는 첫째, 노동조합의 존재는 기업가치에 유의한 긍정적 영향을 미친다. 둘째, 노조가입자 수가 많을수록 기업가치에는 부정적 영향을 미친다. 셋째, 종업원의 임금수준은 기업가치에 긍정적 영향을 미친다. 마지막으로, 종업원 수의 증가정도는 기업가치에 긍정적 영향을 미친다. 추가분석을 통하여 전체기업을 유노조기업과 무노조기업을 나누어 분석한 경우에도 동일한 결과를 얻었다. 강건성 검증을 위해 주요 독립변수들의 전기 값을 이용하고, 유가증권시장 상장기업과 코스닥시장 상장기업을 나누어 분석하여도 비록 설명력은 다소 떨어지지만 유사한 결과를 얻었다. 결과적으로, 노조의 존재는 기업가치에 긍정적인 측면으로 작용한다. 노조의 영향력에 의해 고용이 안정되고 임금이 상승하게 되면, 인적자원에 대한 효율적인 운용으로 기업의 생산성이 증가하고 결국 기업가치가 높아진다. 높아진 기업가치는 종업원 신규 채용으로 이어져 긍정적인 선순환의 영향을 미치는 것으로 판단된다. 다만, 노조가입비율이 너무 높아지는 경우 노조의 지나친 경영 개입을 우려하는 투자자들의 정서에 영향을 끼쳐 기업가치에는 부정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타난다.