Introduction: Human resources, as the most valuable asset of organizations, play a pivotal role in achieving strategic objectives and sustaining competitive advantage. Unlike physical and financial assets that depreciate over time, human capital—through the continuous development of knowledge, skills, and expertise—serves as a durable source of growth and profitability. Within this framework, employees with higher educational attainment represent a critical component of human capital, contributing to enhanced operational efficiency, improved decision-making processes, greater innovation, and stronger stakeholder engagement. From a financial perspective, the educational level of employees may also affect the cost of equity capital. This influence occurs primarily through two channels: (1) reducing operational risk, as highly educated employees perform tasks with greater precision and improve the quality of products and services, thereby lowering the likelihood of errors and related costs; and (2) enhancing information transparency and disclosure, since these employees are more capable of processing data and contributing to the preparation of financial reports, which improves the quality of information available to capital markets. Consequently, perceived investor risk declines, leading to a reduction in expected returns. This study investigates the impact of employees’ educational level on the cost of equity capital among firms listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange.
Method and data: This research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-correlational to answer hypotheses. Our evidence includes all companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange from 2019 to 2023. To select the research sample, in order to have homogeneity of the effective conditions among the companies, such as the date of the end of the fiscal year and the lack of membership in the financial and investment industry, conditions were considered for the investigated companies. Then, 112 companies were selected from 2019 to 2023 by applying certain conditions. To test the research hypotheses, a multivariate regression model was employed using panel data techniques. To measure employee quality, two criteria were used: weighted average level of education and proportion of employees with a bachelor's degree or higher, and to measure the cost of equity, two criteria were used to estimate the cost of equity, r_PEG and r_MPEG.
Findings: The findings show that there is a negative and significant relationship between the education of the company's employees (with two weighted average measures of education level and the proportion of employees with a bachelor's degree or higher) and the cost of equity. In other words, the education of the company's employees plays an important role in reducing the cost of equity for companies; therefore, the research hypothesis is confirmed. The adjusted R2 of the regression model was 42 percent, which confirms that 42 percent of the changes in cost of equity are explained by independent and control variables.
Conclusion and discussion:
In general, the findings of this study indicate a negative and significant relationship between the level of education of employees (with two weighted average measures of education level and the proportion of employees with a bachelor's degree or higher) and the cost of equity in companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. This result indicates that increasing the level of education of employees can lead to a decrease in the cost of equity. Such an effect may be due to reasons such as reducing operational risk, creating a level of corporate risk, improving productivity, improving decision-making processes, and increasing innovation capabilities at the operational level of companies, which ultimately reduces the level of risk perceived by investors. On the other hand, educated human resources may play an effective role in improving the quality of information, transparency of performance, and the effectiveness of implementing organizational policies; these factors can also increase the capital market's trust in the company and reduce the rate of return expected by investors (cost of equity). In this regard, the research hypothesis that there is a significant relationship between the level of education of employees and the cost of equity is confirmed.
In addition to enriching the scientific literature related to human capital, this finding has important implications for managers and policymakers, because investing in training and improving the scientific level of employees not only leads to improved operational efficiency of the company, but also has positive financial consequences such as reducing financing costs and increasing the value of companies in the capital market. From an applied perspective, the results of this research are also of particular importance. In a situation where the cost of equity is one of the most important financial indicators in the decision-making of investors and managers, paying attention to the level of education of employees can be considered as a strategic policy in human capital management. In other words, investing in training and developing employee knowledge is not simply a welfare or social measure, but also an effective tool in reducing financing costs and increasing the market value of companies. Overall, the findings of the present study indicate that the quality of human capital, especially the level of education of employees, can act as a determining variable in improving the performance of companies, along with other financial and economic factors. This result, while confirming the main hypothesis of the study, shows the importance of reviewing organizational policies related to human resource development and has important implications for managers, investors, and policymakers in order to promote financial transparency, reduce investment risk, and increase confidence in the capital market. |
