The average workforce education near firms’ research centers facilitates firms’ matching with innovation talents and acquisition of knowledge. This study documents a positive association between the average education level in the metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) where firms’ research centers are located and the quantity and quality of innovation outputs. The results are confirmed by controlling for various measures of MSA-level economic, population, and employment conditions, as well as research-center level analyses which control for firm-year fixed effects. We further find that local workforce education is more important for firms that are large, less labor-intensive, in non-high-tech industries and located in low education regions. The evidence highlights the importance of having access to well-educated local workforce for corporate innovation. JEL Classification: G30, J24, O31

Shareholders' approval rates on M&A deals are informative because they are predictive of the acquirer's post-merger operating performance. Since the passing of the deal is salient information while the specific approval rate is not, investors may misprice the detailed voting outcome due to their limited attention. We find that post-merger abnormal stock returns are significantly higher for acquirers receiving higher approval rates: a one percentage point increase in the approval rate is associated with a 48 basis point increase in the market-adjusted stock return in the year after the merger is completed. Consistent with mispricing, the voting outcome reliably predicts post-merger earnings announcement returns and analyst forecast errors. What's more, the association between the voting outcome and postmerger stock returns is stronger when investors' attention to the voting outcome is distracted by same-day earnings announcements, when the marginal investor is less likely to be sophisticated, and when investors have greater premerger disagreement. Short sale constraints do not seem to explain our findings. Overall, our results suggest that detailed proxy voting outcomes are neglected by investors.