nep-hrm New Economics Papers
on Human Capital and Human Resource Management
Issue of 2008‒03‒01
six papers chosen by
Fabio Sabatini
University of Rome, La Sapienza

  1. Virtual Mentorship as an Advanced Method of Knowledge and Experience Sharing and Network Building By Mislav Ante Omazić; Dario Blažeković
  2. Foreign Direct Investment, human capital and non-linearities in economic growth By Constantina Kottaridi; Thanasis Stengos
  3. Migrant opportunity and the educational attainment of youth in rural China By Giles, John; de Brauw, Alan
  4. What's in a name? An inquiry on the cognitive and entrepreneurial profile of the social entrepreneur By Cools, E.; Vermeulen, S.
  5. Young Employment, Job-Skill Composition and Minimum Wages: Evidence from a 'Natural Experiment' By João Cerejeira Silva
  6. Study on the Social and Labour Market Integration of Ethnic Minorities By Klaus F. Zimmermann; Martin Kahanec; Amelie Constant; Don DeVoretz; Liliya Gataullina; Anzelika Zaiceva

  1. By: Mislav Ante Omazić (Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb); Dario Blažeković
    Abstract: Access to advanced ideas, specific information, advanced expertise, accumulated experience and applicable knowledge are key competitive determinants of those that want to prosper in knowledge based society. In other words human capital is principal competitive advantage of knowledge based economies. Trends in today’s world are making us rethink the methods of delivering knowledge. In order to answer to those trends and as a proactive effort to foster their global competitiveness top students from two most influenced graduate schools (Faculty of Economics and Business and Faculty Electrical Engineering and Computing both within University of Zagreb) in Croatia gathered within eSTUDENT initiative and they have started project “Virtual Mentorship”. Its primary goal is to initialize and organize cooperation between senior undergraduate students from Croatian universities and acknowledged members of academic society and business world who live abroad but do have originated from Croatia. Purpose of the project is to establish mentor-protégé relationship between these two parties that will enable students to learn and improve their knowledge as well as gain new skills through quality virtual communication with respectable scientists and professionals. This project has a great potential and significance for development of Croatian system of education as well as for improvement of Croatian labor competitiveness in general. Its significance lies primarily on impacts that Virtual Mentorship has on educational system.
    Keywords: mentorship, virtual, knowledge sharing, networking, distance learning
    Date: 2008–01–21
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zag:wpaper:0801&r=hrm
  2. By: Constantina Kottaridi; Thanasis Stengos
    Abstract: This paper examines the effect of FDI on the process of economic growth by allowing the impact to differ both across each country and also across each time period. We apply non-parametric techniques taking into account the previously documented nonlinear effects of initial income and human capital on economic growth. We use a wide range of countries, both developed and developing in order to be able to distinguish potential differential effects between the two groups. Our findings suggest that FDI inflows have a moderately nonlinear effect on growth and that the human capital nonlinear effect in the presence of FDI inflows is similar to the one found elsewhere in the relevant literature.
    Keywords: FDI, human capital, semi-parametric additive model
    Date: 2008
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uop:wpaper:019&r=hrm
  3. By: Giles, John; de Brauw, Alan
    Abstract: This paper investigates how reductions of barriers to migration affect the decision of middle school graduates to attend high school in rural China. Change in the cost of migration is identified using exogenous variation across counties in the timing of national identity card distribution, which made it easier for rural migrants to register as temporary residents in urban destinations. The analysis first shows that timing of identification card distribution is unrelated to local rainfall shocks affecting migration decisions, and that timing is not related to proxies reflecting time-varying changes in village policy or administrative capacity. The findings show a robust negative relationship between migrant opportunity and high school enrollment. The mechanisms behind the negative relationship are suggested by observed increases in subsequent local and migrant non-agricultural employment of high school age young adults as the size of the current village migr ant network increases.
    Keywords: Access to Finance,Population Policies,Education For All,Tertiary Education,Secondary Education
    Date: 2008–02–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4526&r=hrm
  4. By: Cools, E.; Vermeulen, S. (Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School)
    Abstract: Given the rise of social enterprises, the aim of this study is to get more insight into what typifies social entrepreneurs. Although entrepreneurship research has a long tradition in the study of the individual entrepreneur, there are not many studies on the profile of the social entrepreneur. Our research wants to extend the existing knowledge about who the entrepreneur is by comparing the cognitive and entrepreneurial profile of different types of entrepreneurs. Our inquiry addresses two main questions: (1) Does the cognitive style of social entrepreneurs differ significantly from the profile of commercial entrepreneurs? (2) Is there a significant difference between the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of commercial and social firms? The data for this research are collected in two phases using two online surveys. For the cognitive styles (as measured with the Cognitive Style Indicator), we find no significant differences between commercial entrepreneurs (n = 152) and social entrepreneurs (n = 41). Looking at the entrepreneurial orientation of commercial and social enterprises, we find that commercial enterprises score significantly higher on EO than social enterprises. Interestingly, significant differences are found for the innovativeness and risk-taking dimensions of EO, but not for the proactiveness dimension. To conclude, we found that the cognitive-based approach is inadequate to capture the behavioral characteristics of social entrepreneurs within their organization. However, in the environment in which they operate, social entrepreneurs seem to behave differently than commercial entrepreneurs. Implications for further research and for practitioners and policy makers are discussed.
    Keywords: cognitive styles, entrepreneurial orientation, types of entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurship
    Date: 2008–02–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vlg:vlgwps:2008-02&r=hrm
  5. By: João Cerejeira Silva (Universidade do Minho - NIPE)
    Abstract: Empirically very little is known about the impact of an increase in the minimum wage of young workers on the job-skill composition. This is an important question because small (or zero) effects on teenage employment may mask a substitution of more for less-skilled teenagers. Therefore, the estimation of the elasticity of substitution between skilled and unskilled workers is required. This paper will consider the increase in the minimum wage of young workers that took place in Portugal on the 1st January, 1987. This change is of particular interest, not only because it was so large (33% in real terms) and affected a significant share of workers under 20 years old (about 20%), but also because it motivated a decrease in the wage premium earned by young skilled workers from 1.24 to 1.20. The results are consistent with the view that the minimum wage increase had some negative impact on employment of unskilled workers, the most affected group: an increase of 1% in wage induced by the increase in minimum wage reduces employment of this group of workers between 0.42% to 0.47%. Nevertheless, this negative impact was partially compensated by the substitution of more for less-skilled teenagers, because there is some evidence that the elasticity of substitution between young workers with different skills is different from zero.
    Date: 2008
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nip:nipewp:04/2008&r=hrm
  6. By: Klaus F. Zimmermann (IZA, DIW Berlin, Bonn University); Martin Kahanec (IZA); Amelie Constant (IZA, DIW DC, Georgetown University); Don DeVoretz (IZA, Simon Fraser University); Liliya Gataullina (IZA, DIW Berlin); Anzelika Zaiceva (IZA, University of Bologna)
    Abstract: Report for the High Level Advisory Group on Social and Labour Market Integration of Ethnic Minorities and the European Commission
    Date: 2008–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izarrs:16&r=hrm

This nep-hrm issue is ©2008 by Fabio Sabatini. It is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose. If distributed in part, please include this notice.
General information on the NEP project can be found at http://nep.repec.org. For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese at <director@nep.repec.org>. Put “NEP” in the subject, otherwise your mail may be rejected.
NEP’s infrastructure is sponsored by the School of Economics and Finance of Massey University in New Zealand.