Title: Stock Price Information and Employee Career Decisions

Speaker: Pengkai Lin, Assistant Professor, Singapore Management University

Time: 10:00-11:30, May 27th, 2026 (Wednesday)

Venue: Room 1007, Mingde Business Building (Zhongguancun Campus)

Language: Chinese & English

ABSTRACT:

This study examines whether and how stock prices influence the career decisions of rank-and-file employees. The sharp rise in retail participation in U.S. equity markets since 2020 has plausibly increased employees’ exposure to stock price information. Following this shift, we find that employees’ voluntary departures become more sensitive to their firm’s past stock returns relative to those of managers within the same firm. The effect is concentrated among employees with lower prior financial literacy and in firms where stock prices serve as a more relevant signal of future prospects. Consistent with improved decision quality, we find that employees’ voluntary departures become more indicative of poor future firm performance following the shift. Further analysis suggests that employees exhibit limited ability to filter out non-fundamental noise in stock prices. Overall, our evidence suggests that greater exposure to stock price information strengthens its relevance in employees’ career decisions and improves average decision quality, although this improvement is attenuated when stock prices are noisier.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY:

Dr. Pengkai Lin is an Assistant Professor of Accounting at Singapore Management University. He has published in Journal of Accounting and Economics, Management Science, Review of Accounting Studies, and Production and Operations Management. He holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Tulane University and a Bachelor of Management in Accounting from Xiamen University. His research interests include corporate disclosure, information processing, and capital markets.