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on Human Capital and Human Resource Management |
| By: | Astrid Kunze; Katrin Scharfenkamp |
| Abstract: | This study examines the interplay of co-determination law and board gender quotas using novel board-director panel data for Norway. We present descriptive evidence suggesting that boards with employee representatives on boards of directors were more gender diverse before the gender quota. Difference-in-differences estimation results reveal that the differential effect of employee representation on gender diversity is negative after implementing the quota. Boards with employee representatives have recruited fewer women during the phase-in period and the flexible quota tended to be ineffective. We interpret the effect through employee representation as a potential mediating factor of board gender quotas on gender diversity. |
| Keywords: | employee representation, boards of directors, gender, leadership affirmative action, public policy, shareholder directors, firm size |
| JEL: | G34 J16 J53 J51 J78 M54 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11902 |
| By: | Zuzanna Kowalik |
| Abstract: | The widespread shift to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a debate on its impact on employee satisfaction. Despite assumptions that greater flexibility and autonomy would inherently boost job satisfaction, research findings have been inconsistent. A key mechanism that might help explain these mixed outcomes is organisational culture. This study, based on unique linked employer-employee panel data, examines how various dimensions of corporate culture are associated with job satisfaction among remote and on-site workers. The findings reveal that working from home (WFH) enhances job satisfaction, particularly within companies characterised by weaker organisational cultures in the area of communication, leadership and supervision. Importantly, this effect varies significantly by gender: men predominantly benefit from WFH in weaker cultural contexts, while women experience increased satisfaction primarily in organisations with strong supportive cultures. Personality traits, including extraversion and agreeableness, further moderate these relationships. These results highlight the importance of aligning remote work policies with organisational culture to effectively address gender differences and ensure broad-based improvements in employee satisfaction and workplace well-being. |
| Keywords: | Working from home, Job satisfaction, Organisational culture, Gender differences, Remote work |
| JEL: | M54 J81 J28 J16 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ibt:wpaper:wp042025 |
| By: | Nava Ashraf; Oriana Bandiera; Virginia Minni; Luigi Zingales |
| Abstract: | We evaluate a firm’s unusual, worker-centered, solution to the agency problem: enabling employees to reduce the cost of effort rather than pushing them with performance rewards. We randomize the roll-out of the firm’s “Discover Your Purpose” intervention among 2, 976 white-collar employees and evaluate their outcomes over two years. We find that performance increases because the low performers either leave the firm or improve in their current jobs. The trade-off between meaning and pay flattens as those with low meaning and high pay leave the firm. Treatment also reshapes stated priorities and reduces gender gaps in preferences and behaviors, including uptake of parental leave. A cost-benefit analysis reveals high returns that are shared between the firm and the employees through higher bonuses. Finally, we show that observational data obscure these gains, causing firms to underestimate the intervention’s true value. |
| JEL: | C93 J2 J3 M5 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33843 |
| By: | Eriksson, Tor (Aarhus University); Smith, Nina (Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | Despite considerable changes in the gender gap regarding educational qualifications and labor force participation, the share of female managers has changed only slowly and continues to be low. This paper adds new evidence to the study of the dearth of women in top managerial positions in firms by documenting and analyzing data on beliefs about own managerial abilities collected from survey of a large sample of Danish managers. We develop measures for gender stereotype attitudes and beliefs about ability, distinguishing between masculine and feminine skills, and examine whether these are correlated with each other and differ by gender. We find that especially female C-level managers differ substantially from managers at levels below. Female medium and lower-level managers’ beliefs in own ability is lower than for their male peers for two reasons: weaker prescriptive gender stereotype attitudes and lower miscalculation of abilities, possibly less overconfidence. The weaker ability beliefs contribute to reduced self-confidence and career ambitions and to the explanations for the lack of women in top positions. |
| Keywords: | managerial labor markets, career aspirations, agentic and communal skills, gender stereotypes, beliefs about own ability |
| JEL: | J16 D83 D84 M51 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17921 |
| By: | David Card; Francesco Devicienti; Mariacristina Rossi; Andrea Weber |
| Abstract: | The gender wage gap rises with experience. To what extent do firm policies mediate this rise? We use administrative data from Italy to identify workers' first jobs and compute wage growth over the next 5 years. We then decompose the contribution of first employers to the rise in the gender wage gap, taking account of maternity events affecting a third of female entrants. We find that idiosyncratic firm effects explain 20% of the variation in early career wage growth, and that the sorting of women to slower-growth firms accounts for a fifth of the gender growth gap. Women who have a child within 5 years of entering work have particularly slow wage growth, reflecting a maternity effect that is magnified by the excess sorting of mothers-to-be to slower-growth firms. Many entrants change jobs within their first 5 years, and we find that the male-female difference in early career wage growth arises from gaps for both movers and stayers. The first employer components in wage growth for stayers and movers are highly correlated, and contribute similar sorting penalties for women who stay or leave. |
| JEL: | J31 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33730 |
| By: | Pierre-Loup Beauregard; Thomas Lemieux; Derek Messacar; Raffaele Saggio |
| Abstract: | We use Canadian matched employer-employee data to assess the sources of the union pay premium. After controlling for worker heterogeneity using the Abowd, Kramarz, and Margolis (1999) (AKM) two-way fixed effects approach, we find that unionized firms pay about 15 log points more than non-unionized firms. Forty percent of this gap is linked to productivity differences between unionized and non-unionized firms as measured by value added per worker. The remaining gap reflects unions’ ability to extract more rents for workers. Our estimates imply that unions raise pay among unionized workers by around 9 log points. The union effect grows to about 11 log points in an extension of the AKM approach where unions also affect the returns to unobservable worker characteristics. |
| JEL: | J3 J50 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33740 |
| By: | David Dorn (University of Zurich); Florian Schoner (University of Munich, ifo Institute); Moritz Seebacher (University of Munich, ifo Institute); Lisa Simon (Revelio Labs); Ludger Woessmann (LMU Munich, ifo Institute) |
| Abstract: | We measure human capital using the self-reported skill sets of nearly 9 million U.S. college graduates from professional profiles on LinkedIn. We aggregate skill strings into 48 clusters of general, occupation-specific, and managerial skills. Multidimensional skills can account for several important labor-market patterns. First, the number and composition of skills are systematically related to measures of human-capital investment such as education and work experience. The number of skills increases with experience, and the average age-skill profile closely resembles the well-established concave age-earnings profile. Second, workers who report more skills, especially specific and managerial ones, hold higher-paid jobs. Skill differences account for more earnings variation than detailed measures of education and experience. Third, we document a sizable gender gap in skills. While women and men report nearly equal numbers of skills shortly after college graduation, women’s skill count increases more slowly with age subsequently. A simple quantitative exercise shows that women’s slower skill accumulation can be fully accounted for by reduced work hours associated with motherhood. The resulting gender differences in skills rationalize a substantial proportion of the gender gap in job-based earnings. |
| Keywords: | skills; human capital; gender; education; experience; social media; online professional network; labor market; tasks; earnings; |
| JEL: | I26 J16 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2025–06–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:533 |
| By: | Hutschenreiter, Dennis; Liu, Qianshuo |
| Abstract: | Institutional common ownership of firm pairs in the same industry increases the likelihood of a preexisting social connection among their CEOs. We establish this relationship using a quasi-natural experiment that exploits institutional mergers combined with firms' hiring events and detailed information on CEO biographies. In addition, for peer firms, gaining a CEO connection from a hiring firm's CEO appointment correlates with higher returns on assets, stock market returns, and decreasing product similarity between companies. We find evidence consistent with common owners allocating CEO connections to shape managerial decision-making and increase portfolio firms' performance. |
| Keywords: | CEO appointments, CEO connections, common ownership, firm performance, product similarity |
| JEL: | G23 G32 G34 L21 L22 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:319068 |