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on Human Capital and Human Resource Management |
| By: | Antoci Angelo; Sabatini Fabio; Sodini Mauro |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses two hot topics of the contemporary debate, social capital and economic growth. Our theoretical analysis sheds light on decisive but so far neglected issues: how does social capital accumulate over time? Which is the relationship between social capital, technical progress and economic growth in the long run? The analysis shows that the economy may be attracted by alternative steady states, depending on the initial social capital endowments and cultural exogenous parameters representing the relevance of social interaction and trust in well-being and production. When material consumption and relational goods are substitutable, the choice to devote more and more time to private activities may lead the economy to a “social poverty trap”, where the cooling of human relations causes a progressive destruction of the entire stock of social capital. In this case, the relationship of social capital with technical progress is described by an inverted U-shaped curve. However, the possibility exists for the economy to follow a virtuous trajectory where the stock of social capital endogenously and unboundedly grows. |
| Keywords: | Relational goods, social capital, economic growth, technical change |
| JEL: | Z13 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ter:wpaper:0057&r=hrm |
| By: | Parantap Basu; Max Gillman; Joseph Pearlman |
| Abstract: | A pervasive empirical finding for the US economy is that inflation is negatively correlated with the normalized market price of capital (Tobin's q) and growth. A dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model of endogenous growth is developed to explain these stylized facts. In this model, human capital is the principal driver of self-sustained growth. Long run comparative statics analysis suggests that inflation diverts scarce time resource to leisure which lowers human capital utilization. This impacts growth adversely and modulates cap¬ital adjustment cost downward resulting in a decline in Tobin's q. For the short run, a Tobin effect of inflation on growth weakens the negative association between inflation and q. |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:san:cdmacp:0904&r=hrm |
| By: | Wahba, Jackline (University of Southampton); Zenou, Yves (Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to investigate whether return migrants are more likely to become entrepreneurs than non-migrants. We develop a theoretical search model that puts forward the trade off faced by returnees since overseas migration provides an opportunity for human and physical capital accumulation but, at the same time, may lead to a loss of social capital back home. We test the predictions of the model using data from Egypt. We find that, even after controlling for the endogeneity of the temporary migration decision, an overseas returnee is more likely to become an entrepreneur than a non-migrant. Although migrants lose their original social networks whilst overseas, savings and human capital accumulation acquired abroad over-compensate for this loss. Our results also suggest that social networks have no significant impact on becoming entrepreneurs for returnees but matter for non-migrants. |
| Keywords: | social capital, entrepreneurship, selection, savings |
| JEL: | L26 O12 O15 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4541&r=hrm |
| By: | Smyth, Emer; McCoy, Selina |
| Keywords: | qec |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:rb2009/3/3&r=hrm |
| By: | Ortega, Francesc (Universitat Pompeu Fabra); Polavieja, Javier G. (IMDEA) |
| Abstract: | This paper re-examines the role of labor-market competition as a determinant of attitudes toward immigration. We claim two main contributions. First, we use more sophisticated measures of the degree of exposure to competition from immigrants than previously done. Specifically, we focus on the protection derived from investments in job-specific human capital and from specialization in communication-intensive jobs, in addition to formal education. Second, we explicitly account for the potential endogeneity arising from job search. Methodologically, we estimate, by instrumental variables, an econometric model that allows for heterogeneity at the individual, regional, and country level. Drawing on the 2004 European Social Survey, we obtain three main results. First, our estimates show that individuals that are currently employed in less exposed jobs are relatively more pro-immigration. This is true for both our new measures of exposure. Second, we show that the protection granted by job-specific human capital is clearly distinct from the protection granted by formal education. Yet the positive effect of education on pro-immigration attitudes is greatly reduced when we control for the degree of communication intensity of respondents' occupations. Third, OLS estimates are biased in a direction that suggests that natives respond to immigration by switching to less exposed jobs. The latter finding provides indirect support for the endogenous job specialization hypothesis postulated by Peri and Sparber (2009). |
| Keywords: | immigration attitudes, labor market, job-specific human capital, communication skills, international migration |
| JEL: | F1 F22 J61 J31 R13 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4519&r=hrm |
| By: | Frenette, Marc |
| Abstract: | Do students know the education required to achieve their career objectives? Is this information related to their education pathways? To address these questions, the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS), Cohort A is used to compare high school students' perceptions of the level of education they will require for the job they intend to hold at age 30, with the level required according to professional job analysts at Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC). The focus is on students intending to work in a job which requires a university degree, and examine the correlation between the knowledge of educational requirements and subsequent university enrolment. The results suggest that about three out of four students intending to work in a job requiring a university degree are aware of the education they will require. Evidence suggests that knowledge of educational requirements is related to academic performance and socio-economic background. Differences by intended occupation are quite small. Moreover, students who know that a university degree is required are more likely to attend university, even after accounting for differences in academic performance, sex, and socioeconomic background. In fact, the knowledge of educational requirements is as strongly related to university attendance as other well-documented correlates such as sex, academic performance and parental education. Finally, higher university attendance rates are observed when students learn earlier (rather than later), that a university degree is required for their intended job. |
| Keywords: | Education, training and learning, Children and youth, Educational attainment, Education |
| Date: | 2009–10–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2009320e&r=hrm |
| By: | René Böheim; Nicole Schneeweis; Florian Wakolbinger |
| Abstract: | We use data on Austrian firms and employees to estimate the effects of employer-provided training on productivity, wages, and the inequality of wages within firms. While the average amount spent on employer-provided training is low in general, we find a robust positive elasticity of training on productivity of about 0.04. In-house training is more effective than external courses, and language, administrative and personal skills courses are more effective than sales training and IT-courses. We find a significant relationship between training and wages, the coefficient is about 0.05. We find no significant effect of training on the inequality of wages within firms. |
| Keywords: | employer-provided training, productivity, wages |
| JEL: | D21 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:nrnwps:2009_27&r=hrm |
| By: | Pierre Therrien (Industrie Canada, Ottawa); Petr Hanel (CIRST, GREDI, Faculte d'administration, Université de Sherbrooke) |
| Abstract: | Research teams from 18 OECD countries used the methodology introduced by Crepon-Dugay and Mairesse (CDM) to analyze the impact of innovation on labour productivity using firm data from national innovation and administrative surveys. To ensure international comparability, the OECD ‘core’ CDM model did not include variables for which data were missing in some countries. In spite of this shortcoming, the results are broadly in line with theoretical hypotheses and previous studies and show a surprising degree of similarity between countries. This paper builds on the Canadian application of the ‘core’ model used for the OECD project. It uses to the full extent all information available on manufacturing establishments from the Canadian Survey of innovation 2005 linked with the Annual Survey of Manufactures and Logging (ASML). The estimated econometric model controls for selection bias, simultaneity, size of firm and industry effects. The main findings suggest that (1) export outside of the US market, size of the firm and use of direct or indirect government support are factors increasing the probability to innovate and having positive innovation sales. (2) Exports (both to the US and outside of the US market), cooperation with other firms and organizations, and high share of the firms’ revenue coming from sales to its most important client are all factors correlated with higher innovation expenditures per employees. Moreover, firms with a higher market share at the beginning of the period are spending more on innovation by the end of the period. (3) Firms with higher innovation expenditures per employee generate more innovation sales per employee. Other factors increasing innovation sales are human and physical capital and introduction of process innovations. (4) Finally, the firms generating more innovation sales per employees achieve higher labour productivity, even when the size of firms, the intensity of human and physical capital and labour productivity at the beginning are taken into account. The results add valuable further information to and are in line with the simpler model applied to 18 other OECD countries. The paper concludes with discussion of policy implications. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; skills; national innovation systems; labour market; education of innovation; effect of innovation on skills |
| JEL: | J24 J44 L6 L8 |
| Date: | 2009–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:shr:wpaper:09-16&r=hrm |
| By: | Andrés Rodríguez-Pose (IMDEA Ciencias Sociales); Vassilis Tselios (University of Newcastle upon Tyne) |
| Abstract: | Relatively little attention has been paid to the role that externalities play in determining the pecuniary returns to migration. This paper addresses this gap, using microeconomic data for more than 100,000 individuals living in the European Union (EU) for the period 1994-2001 in order to analyse whether the individual economic returns to education vary between migrants and non-migrants and whether any observed differences in earnings between migrants and locals are affected by household and/or geographical (regional and interregional) externalities. The results point out that while education is a fundamental determinant of earnings, European labour markets – contrary to expectations – do not discriminate in the returns to education between migrants and non-migrants. The paper also finds that household, regional, and interregional externalities influence the economic returns to education, but that they do so in a similar way for local, intranational, and supra-national migrants. The results are robust to the introduction of a large number of individual, household, and regional controls. |
| Keywords: | individual earnings; migration; educational attainment; externalities; household; regions; Europe |
| Date: | 2009–11–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imd:wpaper:wp2009-15&r=hrm |
| By: | Albert Bollard (Stanford University); David McKenzie (Development Research Group, World Bank); Melanie Morten (Yale University); Hillel Rapoport (Bar-Ilan University, EQUIPPE and CID, Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | Two of the most salient trends surrounding the issue of migration and development over the last two decades are the large rise in remittances, and an increased flow of skilled migration. However, recent literature based on cross-country regressions has claimed that more educated migrants remit less, leading to concerns that further increases in skilled migration will hamper remittance growth. We revisit the relationship between education and remitting behavior using microdata from surveys of immigrants in eleven major destination countries. The data show a mixed pattern between education and the likelihood of remitting, and a strong positive relationship between education and the amount remitted conditional on remitting. Combining these intensive and extensive margins gives an overall positive effect of education on the amount remitted. The microdata then allow investigation as to why the more educated remit more. We find the higher income earned by migrants, rather than characteristics of their family situations explains much of the higher remittances. |
| Keywords: | Remittances, Migration, Brain Drain, Education. |
| JEL: | O15 F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:200926&r=hrm |