The role of human capital in firm valuation

This study investigates a method for identifying human capital and its effect on company valuation. We devise a measure for the efficiency of human capital based on the personnel cost. We include all companies listed in the financial and industry sector on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm in an attempt to examine human capital and its effect on firm valuation. Our results indicate that a higher efficiency of human capital has a positive effect on return on assets. However, we find that our measure can be interpreted in two ways; either as a firm’s level of human capital efficiency or its dependency on human capital, to achieve its net sales and revenue. We also find indications that the market is valuing firms that rely on human capital lower than firms that don’t. Although our findings are statistically significant, the regressions can only explain a small part of what return on assests is comprised of or the value the market assigns a firm