Don't Downsize This! Social Reactions to Mass Dismissals on Twitter

Andrea Bassanini, Eve Caroli, Bruno Chaves Ferreira and Antoine Reberioux

No 1254, GLO Discussion Paper Series from Global Labor Organization (GLO)

Abstract: We study social reactions to job destructions on Twitter. We use information on large-scale restructuring events announced in the United Kingdom over the period 2013-2018. We match it with data collected on Twitter regarding the number and sentiments of the tweets posted around the time of the announcement and involving the company name. We show that jobdestruction announcements immediately elicit numerous and strongly negative reactions. These reactions are almost five times larger than the positive reactions to job-creation announcements. We also show that the negative reactions triggered by job-destruction announcements are associated with significant losses in the market value of the downsizing firms. This suggests that the damage to the firms' image triggered by the negative social reactions following job destructions entail a financial cost for firms that adds to the standard adjustment costs of dismissals.

Keywords: job destructions; firm value; social media; sentiment analysis; mass dismissals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J63 L82 M21 M51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Don’t Downsize This! Social Reactions to Mass Dismissals on Twitter (2020)
Working Paper: Don't Downsize This! Social Reactions to Mass Dismissals on Twitter (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:glodps:1254

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