nep-hrm New Economics Papers
on Human Capital and Human Resource Management
Issue of 2015‒01‒14
twenty-one papers chosen by
Tommaso Reggiani
Universität zu Köln

  1. Helping in Teams By Danilov, Anastasia; Harbring, Christine; Irlenbusch, Bernd
  2. Sorting into Physician Payment Schemes – A Laboratory Experiment By Jeannette Brosig-Koch; Nadja Kairies-Schwarz; Johanna Kokot
  3. Women Helping Women? Evidence from Private Sector Data on Workplace Hierarchies By Kunze, Astrid; Miller, Amalia
  4. The Effect of Performance Pay on the Retention of Apprenticeship Graduates: A Panel Data Analysis By Miriam Rinawi; Uschi Backes-Gellner
  5. Research Teams’ Human Capital By Natalia A. Shmatko
  6. Multitasking and performance measurement By Nannerup, Niels; Olsen, Kasper Krogh
  7. ORGANIZATION PERFORMANCE AND EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION By Milica Jakšiæ, Miloš Jakšiæ
  8. Pay for Performance: Evaluating the Teacher Incentive Fund By Jeffrey Max; Jill Constantine; Alison Wellington; Kristin Hallgren; Steven Glazerman; Hanley Chiang; Cecilia Speroni
  9. Addressing ReturntoWork Issues in the Federal Employees Compensation Act with Administrative Data By Nan Maxwell; Albert Liu; Nathan Wozny; Caroline Massad Francis
  10. Migrant Wages, Human Capital Accumulation and Return Migration By Joseph-Simon Gorlach; Christian Dustmann; Jerome Adda
  11. Inventory related compensation in decentralized organizations By Barbara Schöndube-Pirchegger; Guido Voigt
  12. PROJECT TEAM MOTIVATION IN PROJECT REALISATION By Perica Jankoviæ
  13. The Production and Stock of College Graduates for U.S. States By Winters, John V.
  14. Executive Summary of the Seventh Ticket to Work Evaluation Report By Gina Livermore; Arif Mamun; Jody Schimmel; Sarah Prenovitz
  15. Benefits of Education at the Intensive Margin: Childhood Academic Performance and Adult Outcomes among American Immigrants By Gevrek, Deniz; Gevrek, Z. Eylem; Guven, Cahit
  16. Human Resource Management In Russian Manufacturing Subsidiaries Of Multinational Corporations By Igor B. Gurkov
  17. Human capital and the probability of divorce By zax, ori
  18. Friendliness pays off! Monetary and immaterial gifts in consumer-salesperson interactions. By Michael Kirchler; Stefan Palan
  19. Transfer Incentives for High-Performing Teachers: Final Results from a Multisite Randomized Experiment By Steven Glazerman; Ali Protik; Bing-ru Teh; Julie Bruch; Jeffrey Max
  20. What Are Error Rates for Classifying Teacher and School Performance Using Value-Added Models? By Peter Z. Schochet Hanley S. Chiang
  21. Combining University Studies With Work: Influence On Academic Achievement By Diana M. Yanbarisova

  1. By: Danilov, Anastasia (University of Cologne); Harbring, Christine (RWTH Aachen University); Irlenbusch, Bernd (University of Cologne)
    Abstract: We study, how help can be fostered under relative rewards by means of team bonus and corporate value statements. A simple model analysis suggests that team members help less as relative rewards increase. As one potential measure to encourage help, we augment relative rewards with team rewards determined by the output of the whole team. This theoretical benchmark is tested in an experiment. Furthermore, we provide the first clean one-shot experimental test of the Lazear and Rosen (1981) tournament model. In a second experiment, we investigate the effectiveness of corporate value statements to encourage help.
    Keywords: help, relative rewards, team incentives, corporate value statements, experiment
    JEL: M52 J33 J41 L23 C72 C91
    Date: 2014–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8707&r=hrm
  2. By: Jeannette Brosig-Koch; Nadja Kairies-Schwarz; Johanna Kokot
    Abstract: Most common physician payment schemes include some form of traditional capitation or fee-for-service payment. While health economics research often focuses on direct incentive effects of these payments, we demonstrate that the opportunity to sort into one’s preferred payment scheme may also significantly affect medical treatment. Our study is based on an experiment testing individual sorting into fee-for-service and capitation payment under controlled laboratory conditions. A sequential design allows differentiating between sorting and incentive effects. We find a strong preference for fee-for-service payment, independent of subjects’ prior experience with one of the two payment schemes. Our behavioral classification reveals that subjects who select into capitation deviate less from patient-optimal treatment than those who prefer fee-for-service payment. Moreover, comparing subjects’ behavior before and after introducing the choice option, we find that subjects preferring fee-for-service become even less patient-oriented after this introduction. As a result, the opportunity to choose a payment scheme does not improve, but - if at all - worsens patient treatment in our experiment. Our findings stress the importance of acknowledging potential sorting and incentive effects in the analysis of physician payment schemes.
    Keywords: Physician incentives; fee-for-service; capitation; payment choice; sorting effects; laboratory experiment
    JEL: C91 D84
    Date: 2014–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0529&r=hrm
  3. By: Kunze, Astrid (Norwegian School of Economics); Miller, Amalia (University of Virginia)
    Abstract: This paper studies gender spillovers in career advancement using 11 years of employer-employee matched data on the population of white-collar workers at over 4,000 private-sector establishments in Norway. Our data include unusually detailed job information for each worker, which enables us to define seven hierarchical ranks that are consistent across establishments and over time in order to measure promotions (defined as year-to-year rank increases) even for individuals who change employers. We first find that women have significantly lower promotion rates than men across all ranks of the corporate hierarchy, even after controlling for a range of individual characteristics (age, education, tenure, experience) and including fixed effects for current rank, year, industry, and even work establishment. In measuring the effects of female coworkers, we find positive gender spillovers across ranks (flowing from higher-ranking to lower-ranking women) but negative spillovers within ranks. The finding that greater female representation at higher ranks narrows the gender gap in promotion rates at lower ranks suggests that policies that increase female representation in corporate leadership can have spillover benefits to women in lowers ranks.
    Keywords: gender differences in promotions, women in leadership, workplace gender spillovers
    JEL: J6 J7 M5
    Date: 2014–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8725&r=hrm
  4. By: Miriam Rinawi (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich); Uschi Backes-Gellner (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich)
    Abstract: A firm’s willingness to provide and pay for general training in the form of apprenticeship training crucially depends on whether it is able to recoup the training costs. A successful strategy is to retain the most productive apprentices after graduation. This article explores whether training firms can use performance pay plans as a successful retention mechanism. Economic theory predicts that inherently more productive workers self-select into performance pay jobs because of higher expected returns. Using representative data from a large employer-employee survey, we test whether a similar relationship exists in the apprenticeship-training context. Using a panel IV method, we find that both the magnitude and the likelihood of performance pay have a significantly positive effect on a firm’s share of internal apprenticeship graduates. Because of their higher retention success, performance pay firms are in turn better positioned to finance general training.
    Keywords: Keywords: apprenticeship training, vocational education, retention, hiring, performance pay, human capital theory
    JEL: J24 J33 C23
    Date: 2014–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0104&r=hrm
  5. By: Natalia A. Shmatko (National Research University Higher School of Economics)
    Abstract: Adopting a Bourdieusian perspective, human capital of research team in the paper is understood as the configuration of the active properties of individual team’s members and the distribution of differences of their active properties. The paper describes a research team as an ensemble of social distinctions determined by a distribution of “active properties” of the team members (educational, research, administrative and media characteristics) and analyses their empirical distribution. The study is based on the consideration of sociological factors of research teams’ performance. The paper discusses in depth the performance of research team (from a sociological point of view) and the relationship between the performance and the social management efficiency. It is prouved that the performance depends on the efficiency of human capital management research team. These distributions show how holistic properties of the field develop, how they relate to individual agents’ properties and how individual researchers “fit” into science.
    Keywords: human capital, scientific capital, research and development, laboratory, performance, efficiancy, research management
    JEL: I2 I28 J24 O32
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:32sti2014&r=hrm
  6. By: Nannerup, Niels (Department of Business and Economics); Olsen, Kasper Krogh (Department of Business and Economics)
    Abstract: In a principal-agent setting, we consider a combined problem of multitasking and performance measurement. The principal can choose to reward the agent both directly for providing effort into a specific activity, and based on the outcome delivered to the principal. Both the issue of multitasking and any private knowledge the agent might possess will lead the principal to use a performance measurement more. This applies even if the measurement is poorly correlated with the actual outcome to the principal.
    Keywords: Multitasking; pay for performance
    JEL: D82 D86 L51
    Date: 2014–12–16
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sdueko:2014_020&r=hrm
  7. By: Milica Jakšiæ, Miloš Jakšiæ (Modern Business School, Belgrade)
    Abstract: Employee satisfaction related to their job, possibilities of career development, mechanisms of performance measurement and reward, as remuneration systems are of growing importance. Expectations of highly educated workforce continuously increase, so recruiting and retention of such workers becomes key factor of success for modern companies. Success of companies is expected to change together with employee saticfaction.
    Keywords: performance measurement, human resource management, employee satisfaction.
    JEL: M12 M51 M54
    Date: 2014–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esb:casdrg:2014-212&r=hrm
  8. By: Jeffrey Max; Jill Constantine; Alison Wellington; Kristin Hallgren; Steven Glazerman; Hanley Chiang; Cecilia Speroni
    Abstract: Provides an early look at the experiences of districts implementing the Teacher Incentive Fund in 2010.
    Keywords: TIF, Teacher Incentive Fund, Pay for Performance, Education
    JEL: I
    Date: 2014–09–16
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:2f47e8ed717e455b9eceea63c14e402d&r=hrm
  9. By: Nan Maxwell; Albert Liu; Nathan Wozny; Caroline Massad Francis
    Abstract: This study examines the characteristics of workers' compensation claims, case management indicators, and work outcomes using administrative data on the cases reported under the Federal Employees' Compensation Act from 2005 to 2010.
    Keywords: ADRA DOL administrative data Employment
    JEL: J
    Date: 2013–04–26
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:8e3f929cbea0422e8272f03ab032e8ca&r=hrm
  10. By: Joseph-Simon Gorlach (University College London); Christian Dustmann (University College London); Jerome Adda (European University Institute)
    Abstract: This paper analyses the wage dynamics of migrants focussing on their human capital accumulation and how it is affected by potential return migration. We develop a life-cycle model describing labor market participation, wages, return decisions as well as two forms of human capital, work experience and cultural integration. The model is estimated using panel data and exploits elicited return intentions as well as realised ones. We show that return intentions are key to understand the decision to invest in various forms of human capital and to explain differential wage paths. We show that conventional estimation methods overstate returns to work experience, as they fail to take into account selective return migration but also selective investment in human capital.
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed014:679&r=hrm
  11. By: Barbara Schöndube-Pirchegger (Faculty of Economics and Management, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg); Guido Voigt (Faculty of Economics and Management, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg)
    Abstract: We consider a principal agent problem in a decentralized organization. The agent holds private information with respect to an uncertain demand within a single selling season. As such his task is to determine the optimal order quantity. Being head of a profit center, however, he naturally focuses on maximizing profit of his particular unit while the principal aims at maximizing long run firm value. This goal incongruency results in a systematic shortfall of order quantity chosen by the agent as opposed to the strategically optimal level. We show that a menu of contracts offered to the agent to pick from is suitable to solve the agency problem and to achieve first best outcomes. Each contract specifies a fixed payment and a bonus or a penalty, conditioned on the inventory level at the end of the selling season, along with a prescribed order quantity. An exogenously given profit share is added to reflect the assumed profit center structure. Omitting any of the contracting elements specified above, however, destroys first best. The paper not only demonstrates that first best can be achieved in the described setting, it also provides a theoretical explanation for the widely observed practice of using inventory related compensation elements in organizations.
    Keywords: Newsvendor, Asymmetric Information, Incentive Design, Service Level
    Date: 2014–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mag:wpaper:140012&r=hrm
  12. By: Perica Jankoviæ (Faculty of Business Studies and Law, Belgrade)
    Abstract: Managing a project team is an everyday activity when managing a project realization. In order to accomplish efficiency at work on a project, it is necessary for all the participants in the project to be motivated and interested, focused on accomplishing the project. To the end of providing greater motivation of the project team for the realization of the project, the project manager should be very well acquainted with the needs and motives of the people he/she is managing and should find the way to provide their satisfaction. Providing satisfaction to the project team members is the only way to provide high level of productivity and creativity in work process.
    Keywords: project manager, project team, motivation.
    JEL: Z13
    Date: 2014–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esb:casdrg:2014-222&r=hrm
  13. By: Winters, John V. (Oklahoma State University)
    Abstract: The stock of human capital in an area is important for regional economic growth and development. However, highly educated workers are often quite mobile and there is a concern that public investments in college graduates may not benefit the state if the college graduates leave the state after finishing their education. This paper examines the relationship between the production of college graduates from a state and the stock of college graduates residing in the state using microdata from the decennial census and American Community Survey. I examine the relationship across states and across cohorts within states. The descriptive analysis suggests that the relationship between the production and stock of college graduates has increased over time and is nearly proportional in recent years. I also employ instrumental variables methods to estimate causal effects. The preferred IV results yield an average point estimate for the production-stock relationship of 0.52, but the effect likely decreases with age.
    Keywords: college graduates, human capital, migration, higher education policy
    JEL: I25 J24 R23
    Date: 2014–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8730&r=hrm
  14. By: Gina Livermore; Arif Mamun; Jody Schimmel; Sarah Prenovitz
    Abstract: This report summarizes seven studies conducted for the final Ticket to Work (TTW) evaluation report that examine beneficiary work activity and effects of the original and revised TTW regulations, the experiences of providers under the revised regulations, and the employment outcomes of beneficiaries using Work Incentive Planning and Assistance services.
    Keywords: Ticket to Work, Disability, Work Incentives, Planning and Assistance, WIPA program, Employment of People with Disabilities , Labor
    JEL: I J
    Date: 2013–07–30
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:f8695c48aead4550ad7409d51b182d30&r=hrm
  15. By: Gevrek, Deniz (Texas A&M University Corpus Christi); Gevrek, Z. Eylem (University of Konstanz); Guven, Cahit (Deakin University)
    Abstract: Using the Children of the Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS), we examine the association between education at the intensive margin and twenty pecuniary and non-pecuniary adult outcomes among first- and second-generation American immigrant youth. Education at the intensive margin is measured by two widely used standardized math and reading test scores, national percentile rankings on these tests and cumulative grade point average (GPA) in both middle and high school. Our findings provide evidence that the academic achievement of immigrant children in early adolescence is an accurate predictor of later life outcomes. We also examine a novel hypothesis that relative academic performance of immigrant children in high school compared to middle school, which could be an indicator of change in adolescent aspirations and motivation as well as the degree of adaptation and assimilation to the host country, has an effect on their adult outcomes even after controlling for the levels of academic performance in middle and high school. The results suggest that an improvement in GPA from middle school to high school is associated with favorable adult outcomes. Several sensitivity tests confirm the robustness of main findings.
    Keywords: economics of education, human capital, immigrant well-being, immigrant academic performance, immigrant assimilation
    JEL: I2 J15 J24
    Date: 2014–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8697&r=hrm
  16. By: Igor B. Gurkov (National Research University Higher School of Economics)
    Abstract: The paper reports the results of a survey of top executives of Russian manufacturing subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNCs). We reveal the prevailing types of job contracts and the use of monetary and non-monetary benefits, and find the similarities with and differences from such arrangements in locally owned industrial companies. We also reveal the differences in human resource management (HRM) policies based on the source of authority over HRM issues (global headquarters, regional headquarters, local groups of companies, etc.). The findings assist in predicting the possible evolution of HRM policies in Russian manufacturing subsidiaries of MNCs during the anticipated period of economic recession in Russia.
    Keywords: Multinational corporations, Human resource management policies, Russia, Manufacturing, International management
    JEL: F23 M12 M11 L60 L23 J32 J32
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:28man2014&r=hrm
  17. By: zax, ori
    Abstract: Concern about the high poverty rates experienced by children in female-headed households has led to policies aimed at increasing these households' income. In this paper we present a model that analyzes decisions made before and during marriage to invest in the human capital of parents and children. These decisions result from a variety of anticipated post-divorce monetary transfers between spouses.
    Keywords: Child care, marital dissolution, public policy, human capital.
    JEL: J12 J13 J18 J24
    Date: 2014–11–22
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:60973&r=hrm
  18. By: Michael Kirchler; Stefan Palan
    Abstract: Recent studies find ample evidence that monetary and immaterial gifts influence effort in the workplace. We investigate the impacts of monetary gift exchange and of expressions of respect on salespersons' reciprocity when purchasing doner durum, a common lunch snack. Prior to the food's preparation, we either induce monetary gift exchange by tipping or explore the role of respect by making a compliment. We repeat the interaction on five consecutive days. Our findings show that salespersons exhibit positive reciprocity in response both to a monetary gift and to compliments regarding the product. The ''compliment-effect'' furthermore increases with repeated visits.
    Keywords: gift exchange, respect, natural field experiment
    JEL: D01 D03
    Date: 2014–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2014-31&r=hrm
  19. By: Steven Glazerman; Ali Protik; Bing-ru Teh; Julie Bruch; Jeffrey Max
    Abstract: This report looks at the Talent Transfer Initiative, which offers a $20,000 incentive to high-performing teachers to move to low-performing schools. The intervention had positive effects on student test scores in math and reading in elementary schools—the equivalent of a 4 to 10 percentile point increase.
    Keywords: transfer incentives randomized controlled trial teacher effectiveness value added
    JEL: I
    Date: 2013–11–30
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:4269bc8810414c8a8f64d3c36fde8211&r=hrm
  20. By: Peter Z. Schochet Hanley S. Chiang
    Abstract: This article addresses likely error rates for measuring teacher and school performance in the upper elementary grades using value-added models applied to student test score gain data. Using formulas based on ordinary least squares and empirical Bayes estimators, error rates for comparing a teacher’s performance to the average are likely to be about 25 percent with three years of data and 35 percent with one year of data. Corresponding error rates for overall false positive and negative errors are 10 percent and 20 percent, respectively. The results suggest that policymakers must carefully consider likely system error rates when using value-added estimates to make high-stakes decisions regarding educators.
    Keywords: Value-Added Models, Performance Measurement Systems, Student Learning Gains, False Positive and Negative Error Rates , Education
    JEL: I
    Date: 2013–04–30
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:8cc459dd9c574c3d832ed4182a49da06&r=hrm
  21. By: Diana M. Yanbarisova (National Research University Higher School of Economics.)
    Abstract: This paper analyses the influence of different combinations of work and study on academic achievement among university students of Yaroslavl region in Russia. The data was collected during the first wave of longitudinal research on the educational and occupational trajectories of graduates of schools and universities conducted by the Institute of Education, Higher School of Economics, Moscow in 2009. The sample consists of 1474 4th and 5th year university students. Five work-study types are defined on the basis of two variables: work schedule and work relatedness to specialty: full-time work outside the specialty field, part-time work outside the specialty field; full-time work in the specialty field, part-time work in the specialty field; and not working during university studies. The results show that working outside the specialty field (full-time or part-time) has a negative impact on academic achievement, whereas the other work-study types do not have any significant effect. The results partly support our hypothesis that different work-study combinations influence academic achievement in different ways and that job relatedness to the academic specialty is a significant characteristic in defining the influence. The paper contributes to the research field of studying attributes of student employment which are responsible for different effects on academic achievement
    Keywords: academic achievement; job relatedness to specialty; student employment; work schedule; work-study types
    JEL: I21 J24
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:21edu2014&r=hrm

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