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on Business Economics |
| By: | Joep Konings; Aaron Putseys |
| Abstract: | We assess how subsidies for on-the-job training affect firm performance. Using a difference-in- differences research design, we find that these subsidies positively influence firm size, wages, and productivity. Over four years, employment increases by 3.55%, value added by 5.68%, and labor costs by 3.60%. Average wages and labor productivity grow by 1.95% and 2.12%, respec- tively. In the first year of treatment, a notable discrepancy exists between the wage (1.21%) and productivity (2.18%) effects, indicating incomplete rent-sharing. These positive effects are primarily seen in smaller firms, which significantly increase training expenditures and hours in the year they receive subsidies, resulting in more trained and skilled workers. Larger firms do not show similar effects, highlighting the possibility that these firms relabel existing training ac- tivities to take advantage of the training subsidy program. Additionally, we find that subsidies focused on training in human resource management, logistics, and business skills drive these positive outcomes for firm size at the firm level. |
| Keywords: | Productivity, Programme evaluation, SMEs growth, Training subsidies |
| Date: | 2025–01–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:ceswps:757420 |
| By: | Di Mauro, Filippo; Matani, Marco; Ottaviano, Gianmarco I. P. |
| Abstract: | Based on the sufficient statistics approach developed by Huang and Ottaviano (2024), we show how the state of technology of European industries relative to the rest of the world can be empirically assessed in a way that is simple in terms of computation, parsimonious in terms of data requirements, but still comprehensive in terms of information. The lack of systematic cross-industry correlation between export specialization and technological advantage suggests that standard measu-res of revealed comparative advantage only imperfectly capture a country's tech-nological prowess due to the concurrent influences of factor prices, market size, markups, firm selection and market share reallocation. |
| Keywords: | comparative advantage, European cross-country data, firm heterogeneity, international trade, monopolistic competition, multi-product firms, productivity |
| JEL: | B17 C19 C51 C80 D21 D43 F02 F12 F14 F61 L13 L25 O49 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhcom:308809 |
| By: | Lars Van Cutsem; Marleen Willekens; Koenraad Debackere |
| Abstract: | In this study, we leverage the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) valuation methodology to reexamine how innovation links to economic value estimates of firms, and how size moderates this relationship. As DCF valuation can be applied to a complete spectrum of firm sizes, ranging from small privately-held to large publicly-listed firms, our study provides more exhaustive evidence on the link between innovation and economic firm value across for all types of firms. This contrasts prior studies that typically draw inferences based on market valuations of publicly listed firms. We show that innovation is positively and statistically significantly related to the economic value in both large and small firms, and that firm size negatively moderates this link. Notably, innovation is more substantially linked to the economic value estimates of small firms than larger ones. These findings are robust to various controls, alternative operationalisations, including survey-reported innovation in the Community Innovation Survey (CIS), and a battery of robustness tests for the DCF valuation approach. |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:afiper:742970 |
| By: | Ronize Cruz (Centre for Business and Economics Research, University of Coimbr); Francisco Nobre (University of Surrey, School of Economics); João Pereira dos Santos (Queen Mary University of London; ISEG - University of Lisbon, REM/ UECE; IZA) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the rapid rise in short-term rentals (STRs) in Portugal and their impact on the performance of local businesses. Using comprehensive firm-level data covering all private companies, we find that exposure to STRs increases the probability of business closures, particularly for low-performing firms. For surviving incumbent firms, we estimate a significant surge in sales for both resident- and tourist-oriented businesses, along with increases in employment, wage bill, and liquidity for the latter. In civil parishes with greater STR exposure, we observe a higher probability of new firm entry, reshaping the urban business landscape. |
| Keywords: | Short-term rentals, Local businesses, Tourism, Portugal |
| JEL: | R12 L25 L83 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gmf:papers:2024-04 |
| By: | Matthias Mertens; Benjamin Schoefer |
| Abstract: | We document and dissect a new stylized fact about firm growth: the shift from labor to intermediate inputs. This shift occurs in input quantities, cost and output shares, and output elasticities. We establish this fact using German firm-level data and replicate it in administrative firm data from 11 additional countries. We also document these patterns in micro-aggregated industry data for 20 European countries (and, with respect to industry cost shares, for the US). We rationalize this novel regularity within a parsimonious model featuring (i) an elasticity of substitution between intermediates and labor that exceeds unity, and (ii) an increasing shadow price of labor relative to intermediates, due to monopsony power over labor or labor adjustment costs. The shift from labor to intermediates accounts for one half to one third of the decline in the labor share in growing firms (the remainder is due to wage markdowns and markups) and rationalizes most of the labor share decline in growing industries. |
| JEL: | E0 J0 L0 M0 O0 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33172 |
| By: | Leonardo D'Amico; Edward L. Glaeser; Joseph Gyourko; William R. Kerr; Giacomo A.M. Ponzetto |
| Abstract: | We document a Kuznets curve for construction productivity in 20th-century America. Homes built per construction worker remained stagnant between 1900 and 1940, boomed after World War II, and then plummeted after 1970. The productivity boom from 1940 to 1970 shows that nothing makes technological progress inherently impossible in construction. What stopped it? We present a model in which local land-use controls limit the size of building projects. This constraint reduces the equilibrium size of construction companies, reducing both scale economies and incentives to invest in innovation. Our model shows that, in a competitive industry, such inefficient reductions in firm size and technology investment are a distinctive consequence of restrictive project regulation, while classic regulatory barriers to entry increase firm size. The model is consistent with an extensive series of key facts about the nature of the construction sector. The post-1970 productivity decline coincides with increases in our best proxies for land-use regulation. The size of development projects is small today and has declined over time. The size of construction firms is also quite small, especially relative to other goods-producing firms, and smaller builders are less productive. Areas with stricter land use regulation have particularly small and unproductive construction establishments. Patenting activity in construction stagnated and diverged from other sectors. A back-of-the-envelope calculation indicates that, if half of the observed link between establishment size and productivity is causal, America’s residential construction firms would be approximately 60 percent more productive if their size distribution matched that of manufacturing. |
| JEL: | D24 E23 L7 R31 R52 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33188 |