How Does Transportation Infrastructure Affect Employees? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in China

陆瑶，现任清华大学经济管理学院金融系副教授。密歇根大学（安娜堡分校）罗斯商学院经济学博士。主要研究方向包括公司金融、劳动经济学与金融、法与金融等。曾在Journal of Finance、Journal of Financial Economics、Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis、Management Science、Review of Finance、Journal of Corporate Finance、《管理世界》、《管理科学学报》、《金融研究》等国内外重要期刊发表多篇学术论文。2017年获得国家自然科学基金委优秀青年科学基金项目资助。

Does more convenient transportation enhance employee performance and retention? We report results from a natural experiment based on the opening of the subway terminal station for Subway Line 15 in Beijing, which alleviated commute delays and improve commuting quality for a subset of workers living in places affected by the subway line. We collect monthly, quarterly and annual data on worker compensation and other characteristics from two companies located close to the new subway station, for a two year period prior to and after the opening of the subway station. We find that the opening of the subway lead to a difference-in-differences (DID) increase in bonus of 4.9% for affected workers relative to coworkers not impacted by the subway. A number of checks confirm the robustness of the baseline result. This result is more pronounced for marketing sales folks and non-manager employees. It is stronger when employees can save longer time by taking the Subway Line 15, but becomes weaker after the firm adopted paperless IT working system. We also find significantly positive spillover effects from affected managers to their employees and across coworkers. Finally, we find a significant decline in exit rate (for affected workers relative to unaffected workers).