Worker Information and Firm Disclosure Analysis on French Linked Employer-Employee Data

Information disclosure requirements significantly increased in French listed companies in the early 2000s, converging toward the U.S./U.K. stock market standards. We investigate the consequences of this process regarding worker information: does more information for shareholders mean more information for workers? Our empirical analysis takes advantage of a French establishment survey that generates linked "employer-employee" data at two points in time, 1998 and 2004. Our results show that worker information has improved in listed companies as an externality of the financialization process. We find, however, that this extra information is only partially correlated with greater employee satisfaction.