|
on Human Capital and Human Resource Management |
| By: | Dylan Nelson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management); Nathan Wilmers (Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management); Letian Zhang (Harvard Business School) |
| Abstract: | High-paying factory jobs in the 1940s were an engine of egalitarian economic growth for a generation. Are there alternate forms of work organization that deliver similar benefits for frontline workers? Work organization varies by type of complexity and degree of employer control. Technical and tacit knowledge tasks receive higher pay for signaling or developing human capital. Higher-autonomy tasks elicit efficiency wages. To test these ideas, we match administrative earnings to task descriptions from job postings. We then compare earnings for workers hired into the same occupation and firm, but under different task allocations. When jobs raise task complexity and autonomy, new hires’ starting earnings increase and grow faster. However, while half of the earnings boost from complex, technical tasks is due to shifting worker selection, worker selection changes less for tacit knowledge tasks and very little for adding high-autonomy tasks. We also study which employers provide these jobs: frontline tacit knowledge tasks are disproportionately in larger, profitable manufacturing and retail firms; technical tasks are in newer health and business services; and higher-autonomy jobs are in smaller and fast-growing firms. These results demonstrate how organization-level allocations of tasks can undergird high-paying jobs for frontline workers. |
| Keywords: | Wage level and structure, wage differentials, human capital, skills, occupational choice, labor productivity, labor management |
| JEL: | J24 J31 M54 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upj:weupjo:24-397&r=hrm |
| By: | Huebener, Mathias (Bundesinstitut für Bevölkerungsforschung (BiB)); Jessen, Jonas (IZA); Kühnle, Daniel (University of Duisburg-Essen); Oberfichtner, Michael (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg) |
| Abstract: | Motherhood and parental leave are frequent causes of worker absences and employment interruptions, yet we know little about their effects on firms. Based on linked employer-employee data from Germany, we examine how parental leave absences affect small- and medium-sized firms. We show that they anticipate the absence with replacement hirings in the six months before childbirth. A 2007 parental leave reform extending leave absences reduces firm-level employment and total wages in the first year after childbirth, driven by firms with few internal substitutes for the absent mother. However, we do not find longer-term effects on firms' employment, wage-bill, or likelihood to shut down. We find that the reform increases replacement hirings, but firms directly affected do not respond to longer expected absences of mothers by subsequently hiring fewer young women. Overall, our findings show that extended parental leave does not have a lasting impact on firms when these can anticipate the absences. |
| Keywords: | parental leave, worker absences, worker substitutability |
| JEL: | J16 J18 J24 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16843&r=hrm |
| By: | ASUYAMA Yoko; OWAN Hideo |
| Abstract: | This study examines the middle-managers’ managerial skills that affect the performance of the subordinates and managers themselves, using personnel records from a Japanese management consulting company, which include upward (downward) feedback given by subordinates (superiors). We identify two different sets of skills expected of managers: people management skills (PMSs), which are mainly observed by subordinates and are primarily required of first-line managers; and senior leadership skills (SLSs), which are mainly observed by superiors and are more important for senior managers. We find that (1) only PMSs observed by subordinates positively predict subordinates’ performance evaluations; (2) PMSs observed by superiors are not related to the outcomes of subordinates or managers; (3) managers’ PMSs and SLSs, including coordination and information gathering skills, predict the retention of subordinates; (4) managers’ PMSs predict their own performance evaluations but do not predict their promotions; and (5) managers with higher SLSs tend to be promoted. The results are interpreted using a theoretical model in which firms make a tradeoff between promoting managers with the right qualities and giving managers incentives to work hard in their current positions. We provide additional evidence supporting the key implications from the model. |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:24037&r=hrm |
| By: | David R. Agrawal; Elke J. Jahn; Eckhard Janeba |
| Abstract: | An unappreciated potential benefit of commuting subsidies is that they can expand the choice set of feasible job opportunities in a way that facilitates a better job match quality. Variations in wages and initial commuting distances, combined with major reforms of the commuting subsidy formula in Germany, generate worker-specific variation in commuting subsidy changes. We study the effect of changes in these subsidies on a worker’s position in the wage distribution. Increases in the generosity of commuting subsidies induce workers to switch to higher-paying jobs with longer commutes. Although increases in commuting subsidies generally induce workers to switch to employers that pay higher wages, commuting subsidies also enhance positive assortativity in the labor market by better matching high-ability workers to higher-productivity plants. Greater assortativity induced by commuting subsidies corresponds to greater earnings inequality. |
| Keywords: | commuting, commuting subsidies, taxes, wage distribution, local labor markets, AKM, assortativity |
| JEL: | H20 H31 J20 J61 R23 R48 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10981&r=hrm |
| By: | Coskun, Sena (FAU Erlangen Nuremberg); Dauth, Wolfgang (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung); Gartner, Hermann (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg); Stops, Michael (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg); Weber, Enzo (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how the shift towards working from home during and after the Covid-19 pandemic shapes the way how labor market and locality choices interact. For our analysis, we combine large administrative data on employment biographies in Germany and a new working from home potential indicator based on comprehensive data on working conditions across occupations. We find that in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the distance between workplace and residence has increased more strongly for workers in occupations that can be done from home: The association of working from home potential and work-home distance increased significantly since 2021 as compared to a stable pattern before. The effect is much larger for new jobs, suggesting that people match to jobs with high working from home potential that are further away than before the pandemic. Most of this effect stems from jobs in big cities, which indicates that working from home alleviates constraints by tight housing markets. We find no significant evidence that commuting patterns changed more strongly for women than for men. |
| Keywords: | working from home, commuting, urban labor markets |
| JEL: | J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16855&r=hrm |