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on Business Economics |
| By: | Thomas Grebel; Mauro Napoletano (OFCE - Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques - Sciences Po - Sciences Po); Lionel Nesta (OFCE - Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques - Sciences Po - Sciences Po) |
| Abstract: | We study the productivity level distributions of manufacturing firms in France and Germany, and how these distributions evolved across the Great Recession. We show the presence of a systematic productivity advantage of German firms over French ones in the decade 2003-2013, but the gap has narrowed down after the Great Recession. Convergence is explained by the better growth performance of French firms in the post-recession period, especially of those located in the top percentiles of the productivity distribution. We also highlight the role of sectoral growth, firm size and export intensity in explaining the above convergence. In contrast, the contribution of allocative efficiency was small. |
| Keywords: | international productivity gaps,productivity distributions,firm level comparisons |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03374310&r= |
| By: | Mattia Guerini (OFCE - Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques - Sciences Po - Sciences Po); Philipp Harting; Mauro Napoletano (OFCE - Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques - Sciences Po - Sciences Po) |
| Abstract: | We develop a model to study the impact of corporate governance on firm investment decisions and industry competition. In the model, governance structure affects the distribution of shares among short- and long-term oriented investors, the robustness of the management regarding pos- sible stockholder interference, and the managerial remuneration scheme. A bargaining process between firm's stakeholders determines the optimal allocation of financial resources between real investments in R&D and financial investments in shares buybacks. We characterize the relation between corporate governance and firm's optimal investment strategy and we study how different governance structures shape technical progress and the degree of competition over the industrial life cycle. Numerical simulations of a calibrated set-up of the model show that pooling together industries characterized by heterogeneous governance structures generate the well-documented inverted-U shaped relation between competition and innovation. |
| Keywords: | governance structure,industry dynamics,competition,technical change |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03374377&r= |
| By: | Leonardo Becchetti (Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, Università di Roma Tor Vergata); Sara Mancini (Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, Università di Roma Tor Vergata); Nazaria Solferino (Dipartimento di Economia, Statistica e Finanza "Giovanni Anania" - DESF, Università della Calabria) |
| Abstract: | Based on results of the different fields of the game theoretic literature on strategic interactions and social dilemmas, gift exchange and procedural utility, we argue that corporate social responsibility and relational skills i) with other firms; ii) between employers and workers iii) among workers and iv) with stakeholders are associated to positive effects on productivity. We test our research hypothesis on a large representative sample of Italian firms including the universe of medium and large companies and accounting for 91.3 percent of domestic employees. We find that companies with higher relational skills report significantly higher value added per worker after controlling for relevant concurring factors. More specifically, the identified significant skill related components are: i) corporate policies considering strategic workers’ wellbeing; ii) team working attitudes considered as priority soft skills when hiring workers; iii) initiatives in favour of the productive network operating in the same local area and iv) involvement of stakeholders in CSR projects. |
| Keywords: | relational skills, corporate productivity, gift exchange, team working |
| JEL: | L22 L25 L14 J53 |
| Date: | 2021–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clb:wpaper:202106&r= |
| By: | Barigozzi, Francesca; Cremer, Helmuth |
| Abstract: | We study how workers’ concern for coworkers’ ability (CfCA) affects competition in the labor market. We consider two firms offering nonlinear contracts to a unit mass of prospective workers. Firms may differ in their marginal productivity, while workers are heterogeneous in their ability (high or low), and in their taste for being employed by any of the two firms. Workers receive a utility premium when employed by the firm hiring the workforce with larger average ability and they suffer a utility loss in the opposite case. These premiums/losses are endogenously determined. When workers’ ability is observable and the difference in firms’ marginal productivities is strictly positive, we show that CfCA increases surplus but it also increases firms’ competition for high-ability workers. As a result, CfCA benefits high-ability workers but is detrimental to firms. In addition, CfCA exacerbates the existing distortion in sorting of high-ability workers to firms: too many workers are hired by the least efficient firm. When ability is not observable, the additional surplus appropriated by high-ability workers is eroded by overincentivization (countervailing incentives) and the more so when CfCA is high. Conversely, high-types’sorting improves when CfCA is low and remains the same when it is high. |
| Keywords: | Concern for Coworkers' Quality; Competition; Screening; Sorting |
| Date: | 2021–11–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:126143&r= |
| By: | Tobias Schlegel; Uschi Backes-Gellner |
| Abstract: | The empirical literature on knowledge spillovers provides evidence that higher education institutions (HEIs) have positive effects on regional firm location, i.e., the number of start-ups or firms located in a region. However, less is known about how HEIs in different fields of study impact regional firm location in different industries. To estimate effects on firm location in different industries, we exploit the establishment of universities of applied sciences (UASs)-bachelor degree-granting three-year HEIs in Switzerland-in different fields of study. We find that effects are heterogeneous and UASs specializing in "chemistry and life sciences" and "business, management, and services" are the only UASs that positively affect regional firm location. These positive effects are limited to service industries that are characterized by both radical service innovations and incremental product and process innovations. |
| Keywords: | Higher Education and Research Institutions, Government Policy, Regional Economic Development |
| JEL: | I23 I28 O18 |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0187&r= |
| By: | Sónia Félix; Sudipto Karmakar; Petr Sedlácek |
| Abstract: | Are serial entrepreneurs – owners of multiple firms – important for understanding the sources and aggregate consequences of business dynamism? Using unique administrative data, we show that – compared to other businesses – firms of serial entrepreneurs are larger, more productive, grow faster, exit less often and disproportionately contribute to aggregate job creation and productivity growth. Moreover, even the very first firms of serial entrepreneurs feature these “premia”, suggesting an important role of innate abilities, rather than luck or learning. Finally, we show theoretically and quantitatively that serial entrepreneurship is also important for understanding and modelling of top income inequality. |
| JEL: | D22 E24 L1 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ptu:wpaper:w202113&r= |
| By: | Stéphane Auray; Aurélien Eyquem (UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2) |
| Abstract: | We introduce heterogeneous mark-ups through Bertrand competition in a two-country model with endogenous firms' entry and tradability `a la Ghironi and Melitz (2005). Bertrand competition generates a distribution of mark-ups according to which firms that are larger and more productive charge lower prices, attract larger market shares and extract larger mark-ups. First, we characterize first-best allocations and their implementation. We find that they are inde- pendent from the degree of mark-ups' heterogeneity, suppress the dispersion of mark-ups and imply zero distortions on labor as well as substantial subsidies to preserve firm's incentives to enter. Second, second-best alternative policies with a restricted number of instruments and a balanced budget significantly reduce the potential welfare gains from fiscal policies. Third, the total welfare losses from passive policies are lower under heterogeneous mark-ups than under homogeneous mark-ups: while the dispersion of mark-ups has negative effects on the intensive margin, output per firm, it also raises expected profits for potential entrants and raises the ex- tensive margin, the number of firms in both domestic and export markets, pushing them closer to their efficient levels. Fourth, we also investigate the dynamic properties of allocations under passive and optimal policies considering aggregate productivity shocks and trade liberalization experiments. |
| Keywords: | heterogeneous firms,endogenous entry,open economy,strategic pricing,optimal taxation |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03373701&r= |