The value of talents

Abstract We exploit Employment Non‐Discrimination Acts, Paid Family Medical Leave Acts, and Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act as quasi‐natural experiments to study the value of talents. Our findings suggest that firms with larger capacity to secure and maintain talent pipelines enjoy higher valuations. We further identify a channel through which talents increase firm value: innovation. The value of talents is more significant among high innovation intensity industries in which talents exhibit their value most evidently. Our findings also indicate that talents are costly to obtain and replace.