{"title":"Work from Home Suitability and Credit Risk Assessment","authors":"Harvey Nguyen, Mia Hang Pham, Cameron Truong","doi":"10.1080/09638180.2023.2239865","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Employing firm-level work from home (WFH) suitability derived from the U.S. universe job postings, we investigate whether rating agencies and debt holders incorporate WFH suitability in their risk assessments. We document that firms with higher WFH suitability have higher credit ratings and lower costs of debt. Our results are robust to different fixed effect estimations, sampling methods, and controls. We identify two ways that WFH suitability translates into higher credit ratings: high WFH suitability is associated with lower future cash flow volatility and lower default risk. Overall, our study suggests that WFH suitability is an important determinant of credit risk assessments and that firms should see flexible work arrangements as an effective strategy in their crisis management planning.","PeriodicalId":11764,"journal":{"name":"European Accounting Review","volume":"100 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2023-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European Accounting Review","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09638180.2023.2239865","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"BUSINESS, FINANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Employing firm-level work from home (WFH) suitability derived from the U.S. universe job postings, we investigate whether rating agencies and debt holders incorporate WFH suitability in their risk assessments. We document that firms with higher WFH suitability have higher credit ratings and lower costs of debt. Our results are robust to different fixed effect estimations, sampling methods, and controls. We identify two ways that WFH suitability translates into higher credit ratings: high WFH suitability is associated with lower future cash flow volatility and lower default risk. Overall, our study suggests that WFH suitability is an important determinant of credit risk assessments and that firms should see flexible work arrangements as an effective strategy in their crisis management planning.
期刊介绍:
Devoted to the advancement of accounting knowledge, it provides a forum for the publication of high quality accounting research manuscripts. The journal acknowledges its European origins and the distinctive variety of the European accounting research community. Conscious of these origins, European Accounting Review emphasises openness and flexibility, not only regarding the substantive issues of accounting research, but also with respect to paradigms, methodologies and styles of conducting that research. Though European Accounting Review is a truly international journal, it also holds a unique position as it is the only accounting journal to provide a European forum for the reporting of accounting research.