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PhD Defense by Jing Xu

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Candidate: Jing Xu

 

Dissertation Title: “The impacts of human capital on the decision-making and performance at corporate- and household-level”

 

Abstract: In this dissertation, I investigate the impacts of individual’s human capital on a firm or household’s decision-making and performance. At firm-level, I adopt novel measures for leadership’s unobservable human capital which are the special experiences of CEO, board of directors and top management team, including their overseas experience and career experiences in various functions. Based on panel data from the listed firms in China, I first explore whether and how CEO and board of directors’ human capital would influence firm’s innovation decision (R&D investment), and then investigate how CEO and top management team’s human capital influences the performance (total factor productivity). In the empirical analysis, the endogeneity issue may exist due to the endogenous appointment process of CEO. We adopt the Random-Effect Instrument-Variable method to address it due to the “rarely changing” nature of CEO dummies. If using the traditional way of fixed effect method, the within variation will be almost gone after doing time-demean. By using Hausman-Taylor method, we select instruments from within the panel system, which are demeaned time-variant variables in original model. The dynamics of investment decision-making and performance are also considered, and the endogeneity issue is addressed by using RE-IV method with instruments from dynamic panel method (Arellano-Bond). We find that the career experiences in various functions of a firm’s leadership not only influence the innovative decision-making, but also further promote a firm’s productivity through efficiency and technology. In the final study, I move to household-level human capital, investigating the impacts of household heads’ human capital on financial behaviors (stock and fund investment), especially the psychological factors. The findings include that risk attitude and perceived debt tolerance significantly influence stock and fund investment under a special market condition. These findings provide policy guidance for decision-makers to regulate corporate and market operation.

 

 

Committee:

 

Haizheng Li, PhD (advisor), School of Economics, GA Tech

Patrick McCarthy, PhD, School of Economics, GA Tech

Shijie Deng, PhD, School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, GA Tech

Shatakshee Dhongde, Ph.D, School of Economics, GA Tech

Justin Burkett, PhD, School of Economics, GA Tech

Karen Yan, PhD, School of Economics, GA Tech

 

Location/Link: https://gatech.bluejeans.com/602207805 (In-person location is G-10, Old CE Building; committee members only)

 

 

Time: May 5, 9:30 am

 

Status

  • Workflow Status:Published
  • Created By:Tatianna Richardson
  • Created:04/20/2021
  • Modified By:Tatianna Richardson
  • Modified:04/20/2021

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