RESEARCH ARTICLE
Employee health and corporate innovation: Evidence from medical cannabis legalisation
Linh Thompson,
Corresponding Author
Linh Thompson
The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas, USA
Correspondence
Linh Thompson, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorLinh Thompson,
Corresponding Author
Linh Thompson
The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas, USA
Correspondence
Linh Thompson, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorFirst published: 23 June 2024
Abstract
We study the effects of employee health on corporate innovation by exploiting staggered medical cannabis legalisation across states from 1995 to 2020. Medical cannabis legalisation increases medical access, thereby significantly influences employee health. Using a difference-in-differences empirical design, we find that firms became more innovative after their states legalised medical cannabis use. In particular, we show that firms produced more patents, generated more patents with significant impacts, and attained higher patent value following the passage of bills to legalise medical cannabis. We identify a possible mechanism through which employee health spurs innovation: lower worker turnover. Lower worker turnover encourages firm-specific human capital investments and facilitates inter-generational knowledge transfer. Taken together, our findings support the hypotheses that medical cannabis legalisation improves employee health, overall well-being and their innovative capacities.
Open Research
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Supporting Information
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Appendix S1. |
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