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on Human Capital and Human Resource Management |
| By: | Gustave Goldmann (University of Ottawa); Arthur Sweetman (McMaster University); Casey Warman (Queen's University) |
| Abstract: | The implications of human capital portability -- including interactions between education, language skills and pre- and post-immigration occupational matching -- for earnings are explored for new immigrants to Canada. Given the importance of occupation-specific skills, as a precursor we also investigate occupational mobility and observe convergence toward the occupational skill distribution of the domestic population, although four years after landing immigrants remain less likely have a high skilled job. Immigrants who are able to match their source and host country occupations obtain higher earnings. However, surprisingly, neither matching nor language skills have any impact on the return to pre-immigration work experience, which is observed to be statistically significantly negative. Crucially, English language skills are found to have an appreciable direct impact on earnings, and to mediate the return to pre-immigration education but not labour market experience. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, human capital portability, occupation, education, language |
| JEL: | J24 J61 J62 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qed:wpaper:1271&r=hrm |
| By: | James Bessen (Research on Innovation, Boston University School of Law, Berkman Center for Internet and Society (Harvard)) |
| Abstract: | Did nineteenth century technology reduce demand for skilled workers in contrast to modern technology? I obtain direct evidence on human capital investments and the returns to skill by using micro-data on individual weavers and an engineering production function. Weavers learned substantially on the job. While mechanization eliminated some tasks and the associated skills, it increased returns to skill on the remaining tasks. Technical change was task-biased, much as with computer technology. As more tasks were automated, weavers’ human capital increased substantially. Although technology increased the demand for skill like today, weavers’ wages eventually increased and inequality decreased, contrary to current trends. |
| Keywords: | skill-biased technical change, technology, mechanization, human capital, wage inequality, learning-by-doing |
| JEL: | J31 N31 O33 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:roi:wpaper:1101&r=hrm |
| By: | Nicola Gennaioli; Rafael La Porta; Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes; Andrei Shleifer |
| Abstract: | We investigate the determinants of regional development using a newly constructed database of 1569 sub-national regions from 110 countries covering 74 percent of the world’s surface and 96 percent of its GDP. We combine the cross-regional analysis of geographic, institutional, cultural, and human capital determinants of regional development with an examination of productivity in several thousand establishments located in these regions. To organize the discussion, we present a new model of regional development that introduces into a standard migration framework elements of both the Lucas (1978) model of the allocation of talent between entrepreneurship and work, and the Lucas (1988) model of human capital externalities. The evidence points to the paramount importance of human capital in accounting for regional differences in development, but also suggests from model estimation and calibration that entrepreneurial inputs and human capital externalities are essential for understanding the data. |
| JEL: | L26 O11 O43 O47 R11 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17158&r=hrm |
| By: | Temel, Tugrul |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the macroeconomic role that different household groups play in human capital formation, sectoral growth and income distribution in Rwanda. Using a disaggregated SAM for Rwanda and with the assistance of structural path analysis, the paper explores the macroeconomic implications of family size for human capital, sectoral growth and income distribution. The findings support the so-called quantity-quality trade-off hypothesis: the smaller the family size, the higher the investment in human capital. In particular, the human capital investment of households with 1-3 children tends to be more pronounced than that of households with more than 3 children. Moreover, households with 1-3 children act as an important intermediate pole transmitting the influence of human capital investment on agricultural production. As a result, promoting family planning programs seems to be a viable strategy for economic growth and poverty reduction. |
| Keywords: | Family size; human capital; growth; Rwanda; structural path analysis |
| JEL: | J13 O47 H31 D33 H41 I18 O15 I28 C67 |
| Date: | 2011–06–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:31741&r=hrm |
| By: | Andrea Bassanini (OECD); Giorgio Brunello (University of Padova) |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of regulatory barriers to entry on workplace training. We develop a model of training in imperfectly competitive product and labour markets. The model indicates that there are two contrasting effects of deregulation on training. As stressed in the literature, with a given number of firms, deregulation reduces the size of rents per unit of output that firms can reap by training their employees. Yet, the number of firms increases following deregulation, thereby raising output and profit gains from training and improving investment incentives. The latter effect prevails. In line with the predictions of the theoretical model, we find that the substantial deregulation in the 1990s of heavily regulated European industries (energy, transport and communication) increased training incidence. |
| Keywords: | training, product market competition, regulatory reform, Europe. |
| JEL: | J24 L11 O43 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pad:wpaper:0137&r=hrm |
| By: | Alex Bryson; Rafael Gomez; Kerry L. Papps |
| Abstract: | Alex Bryson and colleagues use US baseball data to investigate whether performance suffers if there is too wide a gap between the skills of a team's stars and the rest. |
| Keywords: | skill dispersion, baseball, firm performance |
| JEL: | L23 L25 L83 M51 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepcnp:344&r=hrm |
| By: | John P. Papay; Richard J. Murnane; John B. Willett |
| Abstract: | Students receive abundant information about their educational performance, but how this information affects future educational-investment decisions is not well understood. Increasingly common sources of information are state-mandated standardized tests. On these tests, students receive a score and a label that summarizes their performance. Using a regression-discontinuity design, we find persistent effects of earning a more positive label on the college-going decisions of urban, low-income students. Consistent with a Bayesian-updating model, these effects are concentrated among students with weaker priors, specifically those who report before taking the test that they do not plan to attend a four-year college. |
| JEL: | I20 I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17120&r=hrm |
| By: | Kriechel, Ben (ROA, Maastricht University); Pfann, Gerard A. (Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study the joint decision process of changing the structure of jobs and laying off individual workers in a firm that downsizes its workforce. A hierarchical decision model is proposed and estimated using personnel data from a firm in demise comparing the characteristics of the individual workers and the structure of the firm's labour force before and after its reorganization. Our results show that workers in jobs in the top levels of each skill group's hierarchy are better protected against downsizing due to larger productivity shocks and larger firing costs. |
| Keywords: | hierarchies, restructuring, control span, job displacement |
| JEL: | J63 J65 L23 L60 L93 M51 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5794&r=hrm |
| By: | Mahy, Benoît (University of Mons-Hainaut); Rycx, Francois (Free University of Brussels); Volral, Mélanie (University of Mons-Hainaut) |
| Abstract: | This article puts the relationship between wage dispersion and firm productivity to an updated test, taking advantage of access to detailed Belgian linked employer-employee panel data. Controlling for simultaneity issues, time-invariant workplace characteristics and dynamics in the adjustment process of productivity, empirical results reveal the existence of a positive impact from conditional intra-firm wage dispersion to firm productivity (measured by the average value added per hour worked), which however decreases for higher dispersion levels. Findings thus suggest that the incentive effect of wage dispersion, predicted for instance by the 'tournament' model, dominates 'fairness' and/or 'sabotage' considerations. Further results reveal that the influence of wage dispersion on firm productivity is stronger among firms with a larger proportion of highly skilled workers but does not depend on whether wages are collectively renegotiated at the firm level. |
| Keywords: | labour productivity, matched employer-employee panel data, personnel economics, wage dispersion |
| JEL: | J31 J24 M5 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5791&r=hrm |
| By: | Caliendo, Marco (IZA); Kritikos, Alexander S. (DIW Berlin) |
| Abstract: | What makes the entrepreneurial personality is the key question we seek to answer in the special issue of the Journal of Economic Psychology on "Personality and Entrepreneurship". The contributions are clustered around questions regarding the linkage between personality, socio-economic factors and entrepreneurial development. Results further explain the gender puzzle, while, at the same time, it is clear that stereotypes of what makes the ideal entrepreneur must be revisited. This conclusion is based on new insights into the effects that variables, such as risk tolerance, trust and reciprocity, the value for autonomy and also external role models, have on entrepreneurial decision making. On a more general note, it is clear that more informative longitudinal data sets at the individual level are needed in order to find conclusive answers. In an ideal world researchers would have access to data that includes personality characteristics and psychological traits, motivational factors and cognitive skills. In this respect the research community needs to find new ways to collect these data and make them available for entrepreneurship research. |
| Keywords: | trust, entrepreneurship, personality characteristics, risk aversion, autonomy |
| JEL: | D81 J23 L26 M13 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5790&r=hrm |