nep-hrm New Economics Papers
on Human Capital and Human Resource Management
Issue of 2007‒07‒13
twelve papers chosen by
Fabio Sabatini
University of Rome, La Sapienza

  1. Hobbies, Skills and Incentives to Work: The Happy Gardener and the Wealthy Golfer By Sällström, Susanna
  2. Estimating Peer Effects in Swedish High School using School, Teacher, and Student Fixed Effects By Sund, Krister
  3. Unemployment Duration and Labor Mobility in Argentina: A Socioeconomic-Based Pre- and Post-Crisis Analysis By Gustavo Javier Canavire-Bacarreza; Luís Fernando Lima Soria
  4. Pennies from heaven. Using exogenous tax variation to identify effects of school resources on pupil achievement By Torbjørn Hægeland, Oddbjørn Raaum and Kjell G. Salvanes
  5. Wage Dispersion and Overqualification as Entailed by Reder Competition By Schlicht, Ekkehart
  6. The Localization of Entrepreneurship Capital - Evidence from Germany By David B. Audretsch; Max Keilbach
  7. Global Leadership and Managerial Competencies of Indian Managers By Rao T.V.
  8. Assortative Matching and the Education Gap By Ximena Peña
  9. Building a Better Rat Trap: Technological Innovation, Human Capital and the Irula By Siri Terjesen
  10. Globalisation and Higher Education By Simon Marginson; Marijk van der Wende
  11. An Empirical Test of Reder Competition and Specific Human Capital Against Standard Wage Competition By Ludsteck, Johannes; Haupt, Harry
  12. Religion and Entrepreneurship By Audretsch, David B; Bönte, Werner; Tamvada, Jagannadha Pawan

  1. By: Sällström, Susanna
    Abstract: Two of the earliest inventions of a human capital-intensive technology were for the production of personal internal goods that enabled humans to derive more pleasure out of leisure, namely dance and music. I model the incentives to invent hobbies and to acquire hobby skills, and its implications for the incentives to work and to acquire professional skills. This model explains the economic origins of culture. It was no accident that the intricate steps of tango emerged in the shabby quarters of Buenos Aires, and that the Royal and Ancient Golf Club in St Andrews was the initiative of 22 noble and gentlemen of Fife.
    Keywords: culture; education; hobbies; human capital; leisure; welfare
    JEL: D13 J22 J24
    Date: 2007–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6376&r=hrm
  2. By: Sund, Krister (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University)
    Abstract: In this paper I use a rich dataset in order to observe each student over time in different subjects and courses. Unlike most peer studies, I identify the peers and the teachers that each student has had in every classroom. This enables me to handle the simultaneity and selection problems, which are inherent in estimating peer effects in the educational production function. I use a value-added approach with lagged peer achievement to avoid simultaneity and extensive fixed effects to rule out selection. To be specific, it is within-student across-subject variation with additional controls for time-invariant teacher characteristics that is exploited. Moreover, I identify students that are attending classes in which they have no peers from earlier education which otherwise could bias the result. I find positive peer effects for the average student but also that there is a non-linear dimension. Lower-achieving students benefit more from an increase in both mean peer achievement and the spread in peer achievement within the classroom than their higher-achieving peers.
    Keywords: Economics of education; Peer effects
    Date: 2007–05–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sofiwp:2007_008&r=hrm
  3. By: Gustavo Javier Canavire-Bacarreza (Andrew Young School of Policy Studies Georgia State University); Luís Fernando Lima Soria (Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales (CEDLAS) - Universidad Nacional de La Plata)
    Abstract: This paper evaluates the unemployment duration and labor mobility using data from the household surveys provided by the National Statistical office (INDEC) for the period 1998 to 2005. The paper aims to understand and explain the evolution and main determinants of labor mobility and unemployment duration, two of the main problems that labor markets present. Unemployment duration is studied in terms of welfare and its determinants by applying stochastic dominance and econometric techniques. Labor mobility is analyzed using conditional multinomial probit techniques in order to evaluate its evolution, the impact of a crisis and the recovery period, that Argentina faced over the period 1998-2005. We found that there was deterioration in welfare measured by unemployment duration especially during the crisis period. We found that human capital played a key role in the unemployment duration and labour mobility. Unemployment duration is higher for people with higher educational levels, which shows that less educated people have lower reservations wages; similar result was found for females and males. The labour mobility results show that more educated people enter easier to formal labor markets which changes during the crisis when their probability of entering to formal labor market reduces; this would suggest that more educated people tend to adjust their wages and push out of the market less educated people. The labour mobility patterns do not reflect inflexibility in labour markets. We conclude that the apparent duality – formal and informal - in the Argentinean labour market which seems to reflect differences in access to productive resources (human capital) outside labour market is the one that determines the integration into labour markets and later labour mobility of a big part of labour force.
    Keywords: Unemployment duration, labour mobility, stochastic dominance, count models, hazard models.
    JEL: J62 J64 C41
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0054&r=hrm
  4. By: Torbjørn Hægeland, Oddbjørn Raaum and Kjell G. Salvanes (Statistics Norway)
    Abstract: Despite important policy implications associated with the allocation of education resources, evidence on the effectiveness of school inputs remains inconclusive. In part, this is due to endogenous allocation; families sort themselves non-randomly into school districts and school districts allocate money based in order to compensate (or reinforce) differences in child abilities, which leaves estimates of school input effects likely to be biased. Using variation in education expenditures induced by the location of natural resources in Norway, we examine the effect of school resources on pupil outcomes. We find that higher school expenditures, triggered by higher revenues from local taxes on hydropower plants, have a significantly positive effect on pupil performance at age 16. The IV estimates contrast with the standard cross-sectional estimates that reveal no effects of extra resources.
    Keywords: Pupil achievement; school resources
    JEL: I21 I28 J24
    Date: 2007–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:508&r=hrm
  5. By: Schlicht, Ekkehart
    Abstract: The expansion of higher education in the Western countries has been accompanied by a marked widening of wage differentials and increasing overqualification. While the increase in wage differentials has been attributed to skill-biased technological change that made advanced skills scarce, this explanation does not fit well with the observed increase in overqualification which suggests that advanced skills are in excess supply. By "Reder-competition" I refer to the simultaneous adjustment of wage offers and hiring standards in response to changing labor market condition. I present a simple model of Reder competition that reproduces the simultaneous increase in wage differentials and overqualification in response to an increase in education.
    Keywords: Hiring standards; employment criteria; selection wages; efficiency wages; mobility; skill-biased technical change; overeducation; wage dispersion; Reder competition
    JEL: J31 J63 D43
    Date: 2007–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:muenec:1976&r=hrm
  6. By: David B. Audretsch (Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena, Germany; Indiana University, USA); Max Keilbach (Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena, Germany)
    Abstract: Whereas initially physical capital and later, knowledge capital were viewed as crucial for growth, more recently a very different factor, entrepreneurship capital, has emerged as a driving force of economic growth. In this paper, we define a region's capacity to create new firms start-ups as the region's entrepreneurship capital. We then investigate the local embeddedness of this variable and which variables have an impact on this variable. Using data for Germany, we find that knowledge-based entrepreneurship capital is driven by local levels of knowledge creation and the acceptance of new ideas, indicating that local knowledge flows play an important role. Low-tech entrepreneurship capital is rather increased by regional unemployment and driven by direct incentives such as subsidies. All three measures are locally clustered, indicating that indeed, entrepreneurship capital is a phenomenon that is driven by local culture, and is therefore locally bounded.
    Keywords: Entrepreneurship capital, Local Clusters, Knowledge Spillovers, Spatial Econometrics
    JEL: L60 O30 G30
    Date: 2007–07–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2007-029&r=hrm
  7. By: Rao T.V.
    Abstract: A review of the literature on the qualities of effective managers, leaders and world class or global manager indicates a good degree of consistency in the qualities required to be called a global manager. In these days when mergers and acquisition have become common and national boundaries are crossed with ease in acquiring new businesses and setting up new businesses it is necessary to understand and acquire the competencies needed to be globally successful leader. This paper identifies 25 such qualities from a 360 feedback survey of 762 senior and top level managers from manufacturing, services and pharma sectors combined with those from a mix of organizations belonging to two leading business houses of India. An analysis of the open ended assessments given by nearly 7600 managers indicated the most frequently perceived strengths and weaknesses of Indian management. Job knowledge comes out as the most frequently observed strong point of Indian managers and this cuts across various sectors and business houses. Communication, team work, and hard work come out as other strong points of more than 20 per cent of Indian managers. Short temper, open-mindedness, and inability to build juniors are the most frequently mentioned areas needing improvement. Vision, values, strategic thinking, decision making skills, risk taking, innovativeness, ability to learn from mistakes, learning orientation and self renewal efforts, and cross cultural sensitivity are other qualities lacking in Indian managers to be called as global managers. These qualities are either not exhibited dominantly or are not received bye fellow managers. Future management education and management development programmes should focus on these qualities to prepare Indian managers to be world class managers.
    Date: 2007–06–15
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:2007-06-05&r=hrm
  8. By: Ximena Peña (Department of Economics, Georgetown University)
    Abstract: This paper attempts to explain the decrease and reversal of the education gap between males and females. Given a continuum of agents, the education decisions are modelled as an assignment game with endogenous types. In the first stage agents choose their education level and in the second they participate in the labor and marriage markets. Competition among potential matches ensures that the efficient education levels can always be sustained in equilibrium, but there may be inefficient equilibria. Combining asymmetries intrinsic to the modelled markets the model reproduces the observed education gap. Classification-JEL Codes: C78, D13, D61
    Keywords: Assortative matching, pre-marital investments, efficiency
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:geo:guwopa:gueconwpa~06-06-12&r=hrm
  9. By: Siri Terjesen (Brisbane Graduate School of Business, Australia; Max Planck Institute of Economics, Germany)
    Abstract: This case follows Sethu Sethunarayanan, Director of the non-profit Center for the Development of Disadvantaged People (CDDP), which is dedicated to the improvement of the Irula tribe in rural villages of southeast India. The Irulas specialize in catching rats, an activity which provides the bulk of their income and food. Following a routine visit to a local village, Sethu recognized an opportunity for a "better rat trap" to aid the Irula rat catchers. With feedback from rat catchers, Sethu developed an innovative new trap. His innovation won the prestigious Global Development Marketplace award from the World Bank which provided the funding necessary to commercialize the new technology. The venture’s implementation involved site visits to identify beneficiaries, health checks and treatment, preparatory workshops, factory establishment, factory training, production, women's micro-credit collectives, distribution and project evaluation. The case focuses on the relationship between human capital and technological entrepreneurship, considering the knowledge and skills required to commercialize technology for the rural poor and the positive impact on this greatly disadvantaged population.
    Keywords: Human Capital, India, Innovation, Irula, Social Entrepreneurship, Technological Entrepreneurship, World Bank
    Date: 2007–07–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2007-031&r=hrm
  10. By: Simon Marginson; Marijk van der Wende
    Abstract: Economic and cultural globalisation has ushered in a new era in higher education. Higher education was always more internationally open than most sectors because of its immersion in knowledge, which never showed much respect for juridical boundaries. In global knowledge economies, higher education institutions are more important than ever as mediums for a wide range of cross-border relationships and continuous global flows of people, information, knowledge, technologies, products and financial capital.<p> Even as they share in the reinvention of the world around them, higher education institutions, and the policies that produce and support them, are also being reinvented. For the first time in history every research university is part of a single world-wide network and the world leaders in the field have an unprecedented global visibility and power. Research is more internationalised than before and the mobility of doctoral students and faculty has increased. The specifically global element in academic labour markets has gained weight, especially since the advent of global university rankings.<p> This working paper explores the issues for national policy and for individual institutions. Part I provides an overview of globalisation and higher education and the global responses of national systems and individual institutions of higher education. Part II is focused on certain areas of policy with a strong multilateral dimension: Europeanisation, institutional rankings and typologies and cross-border mobility. <BR>Avec la mondialisation économique et culturelle, l'enseignement supérieur entre dans une nouvelle ère. Jusqu'ici, l'enseignement supérieur a toujours été un secteur plus international que les autres, car plongé dans la connaissance, sans égard aux frontières juridiques. Dans les économies mondiales de la connaissance, les établissements d'enseignement supérieur sont plus importants que jamais en tant qu'intermédiaires dans une multiplicité de relations internationales et de flux continus d'individus, d'informations, de connaissances, de technologies, de produits et de capital financier.<p> Même si ils participent à la réinvention du monde autour d'eux, les établissements d'enseignement supérieur, et les actions politiques qui les engendrent et les soutiennent, sont aussi en train d'être repensés. Pour la première fois dans l?histoire, chaque université de recherche fait partie d'un unique réseau mondial, et les chefs de file internationaux dans le domaine sont dotés d'une visibilité et d'un pouvoir au niveau mondial sans pareil. La recherche est désormais plus internationalisée, et la mobilité des doctorants et du corps enseignant se développe. L'élément international a pris de la valeur sur les marchés du travail de la filière académique, et plus particulièrement depuis l'avènement des classements universitaires à l'échelle mondiale.<p> Ce document de travail étudie les problématiques pour les politiques nationales et les établissements eux-mêmes. La première partie analyse dans son ensemble la mondialisation et l'enseignement supérieur, et les actions internationales qu'entreprennent les systèmes nationaux et les établissements d'enseignement supérieur. La seconde partie observe plus spécialement certains domaines politiques à caractère très international : l'européanisation, les classements et les typologies des établissements, et la mobilité internationale.
    Date: 2007–07–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaab:8-en&r=hrm
  11. By: Ludsteck, Johannes; Haupt, Harry
    Abstract: A firm that faces insufficient supply of labor can either increase the wage offer to attract more applicants, or reduce the hiring standard to enlarge the pool of potential employees, or do both. This simultaneous adjustment of wages and hiring standards has been emphasized in a classical contribution by Reder (1955) and implies that wage reactions to employment changes can be expected to be more pronounced for low wage workers than for high wage workers. We test this hypothesis (together with a related hypothesis on firm-specific human capital) by applying a bootstrap-based quantile regression approach to censored panel data from the German employment register. Our findings suggest that market clearing is achieved by a combination of wage and hiring standards adjustment.
    Keywords: wage setting; hiring standards; wage structure; efficiency wages; panel quantile regression; censoring
    JEL: J31 J41 C24
    Date: 2007–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:muenec:1977&r=hrm
  12. By: Audretsch, David B; Bönte, Werner; Tamvada, Jagannadha Pawan
    Abstract: While considerable concern has emerged about the impact of religion on economic development, little is actually known about how religion impacts the decision making of individuals. This paper examines the influence of religion on the decision for people to become an entrepreneur. Based on a large-scale data set of nearly ninety thousand workers in India, this paper finds that religion shapes the entrepreneurial decision. In particular, some religions, such as Islam and Christianity, are found to be conducive to entrepreneurship, while others, such as Hinduism, inhibit entrepreneurship. In addition, the caste system is found to influence the propensity to become an entrepreneur. Individuals belonging to a backward caste exhibit a lower propensity to become an entrepreneur. Thus, the empirical evidence suggests that both religion and the tradition of the caste system influence entrepreneurship, suggesting a link between religion and economic behaviour.
    Keywords: caste-system; entrepreneurship; India; religion
    JEL: L26 Z12
    Date: 2007–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6378&r=hrm

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