|
on Human Capital and Human Resource Management |
| By: | Jirjahn, Uwe (University of Trier); Mohrenweiser, Jens (Bournemouth University) |
| Abstract: | Since the emergence of personnel economics, economists have been increasingly aware that the management practices used by firms are an important determinant of productivity. However, it is an open question of whether the impact of management practices on the productivity of firms depends on workplace health promotion activities (alternatively called workplace wellness programs). Using a widely recognized management index developed by Bloom and Van Reenen (2007), this study provides evidence that workplace health promotion moderates the link between management practices and productivity. Our panel data estimates show that the positive impact of management practices on productivity is stronger if a firm engages in workplace health promotion. This finding fits the notion that workplace health promotion mitigates adverse side effects of management practices on employees’ health. However, our estimates also provide evidence of a negative direct influence of workplace promotion on productivity. The positive moderating influence of workplace health promotion only dominates the negative direct influence if a firm uses Bloom and Van Reenen’s management practices (targets, monitoring and incentives) at a high intensity. |
| Keywords: | workplace wellness programs, employee health, incentives, monitoring, targets, firm performance |
| JEL: | I10 J24 J28 J81 M50 |
| Date: | 2025–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18059 |
| By: | Derenoncourt, Ellora (Princeton University); Gerard, Francois (Queen Mary, University of London); Lagos, Lorenzo (Brown University); Montialoux, Claire (UC Berkeley) |
| Abstract: | We study the role of union heterogeneity in shaping wages and inequality among unionized workers. Using linked employer-employee data from Brazil and job moves across multi-firm unions, we estimate over 4, 800 union-specific pay premia. Unions explain 3–4% of earnings variation. While unions raise wages on average, the standard deviation in union effects is large (6-7%). Validating our approach, wages fall in markets with higher vs. lower union premia following a nationwide right-to-work law. Linking premia to detailed data on union attributes, we find that unions with strike activity, collective bargaining agreements, internal competition, and skilled leaders secure higher wages. High-premium unions compress wage gaps by education while the average union exacerbates them. Post right-to-work, however, worker support for high-premium unions falls when between-group bargaining differentials are large. Our findings show that unions are not a monolith—their structure and actions shape their wage effects and, consequently, worker support. |
| Keywords: | wage inequality, pay premia, unions, right-to-work |
| Date: | 2025–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18065 |
| By: | Asakawa, Shinsuke (Osaka University); Shimono, Akinori; Takahashi, Mikiko; Yamane, Shoko (The University of Osaka); Sasaki, Masaru (The University of Osaka) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates whether a meeting environment’s visual openness influences team productivity and communication quality. We conducted a randomized controlled trial with participants assigned to discussions held in a transparent glass meeting room (treatment) or a fully curtained room (control). Team productivity was evaluated based on the quality of participants’ policy proposals. Communication quality was assessed using transcript-based indicators such as laugh frequency and topic diversity. We found that groups in visually open meeting rooms received significantly higher proposal ratings and exhibited greater emotional positivity and topic diversity, highlighting that within-session dynamics expose how environmental design affects group interaction. |
| Keywords: | randomized controlled trial, visual openness, communication quality, team productivity, workplace design, natural language processing |
| JEL: | C93 J24 M54 |
| Date: | 2025–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18058 |
| By: | Beckmann, Michael (University of Basel); Grunau, Philipp (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung); Kretschmer, Tobias (LMU Munich); Shvartsman, Elena (WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management) |
| Abstract: | An employee’s affective commitment to the firm is a key driver of individual and, ultimately, firm performance. We study the role of high involvement management (HIM) practices in promoting affective commitment and ask if different components of HIM, specifically power, information, rewards, and knowledge, form a coherent management system and/or are complementary across components. Coherence implies that the components are not in conflict with or substitute for each other, i.e., adding them individually generates additional positive returns, while complementarity implies that the returns from adding one component increase with the number of other components already in place. We use detailed and unique data from a large sample of German firms and their employees and find that while HIM is a coherent management system, there are no strong complementarities across practices. |
| Keywords: | high involvement management, affective commitment, coherent management system, complementarity |
| JEL: | D2 M1 M5 L2 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18047 |
| By: | Benjamin Lahey; Benjamin Hyman; Karen Ni; Laura Pilossoph |
| Abstract: | We document the extent to which workers in AI-exposed occupations can successfully retrain for AI-intensive work. We assemble a new workforce development dataset spanning over 1.6 million job training participation spells from all U.S. Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act programs from 2012-2023 linked with occupational measures of AI exposure. Using earnings records observed before and after training, we compare high AI exposure trainees to a matched sample of similar workers who only received job search assistance. We find that AI-exposed workers have high earnings returns from training that are only 25 percent lower than the returns for low AI exposure workers. However, training participants who target AI-intensive occupations face a penalty for doing so, with 29 percent lower returns than AI-exposed workers pursuing more general training. We estimate that between 25 percent to 40 percent of occupations are “AI retrainable” as measured by its workers receiving higher pay for moving to more AI-intensive occupations—a large magnitude given the relatively low-income sample of displaced workers. Positive earnings returns in all groups are driven by the most recent years when labor markets were tightest, suggesting training programs may have stronger signal value when firms reach deeper into the skill market. |
| Keywords: | artificial intelligence; active labor market policies; job training; labor markets |
| JEL: | J08 M53 O31 |
| Date: | 2025–08–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednsr:101471 |
| By: | Ewens, Michael (California Institute of Technology); Giroud, Xavier |
| Abstract: | We introduce a novel measure of corporate hierarchies for over 2, 500 U.S. public firms. This measure is obtained from online resumes of 16 million employees and a network estimation technique that allows us to identify hierarchical layers. Equipped with this measure, we document several facts about corporate hierarchies. Firms have on average ten hierarchical layers and a pyramidal organizational structure. More hierarchical firms have a more educated workforce, higher internal promotion rates, and longer employee tenure. Their operating performance is higher, but they face higher administrative costs. They are more active acquirers and produce more patents, but not higher-quality patents. They exhibit lower stock return volatility and more stable cash flows. We also examine how companies adjust their hierarchies in response to demand and knowledge shocks. We find that biotech companies increased their number of layers following the Covid-19 pandemic, while companies flattened their hierarchies following the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. These findings are consistent with the theoretical predictions of existing models of corporate hierarchies. |
| Date: | 2025–08–14 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:yj4he_v1 |
| By: | Gregory-Smith, Ian (University of Sheffield); Bryson, Alex (University College London); Gomez, Rafael (University of Toronto) |
| Abstract: | We examine the role that racial discrimination plays in the decision to retain or release an employee. Our empirical setting allows us to separate the retention decision from the wage decision. For the first four years of a player’s career, wages are mechanically determined and players are under a restricted ‘rookie’ contract, during which they can be released without cost. Players who survive in the league beyond four years receive a large uptick in their remuneration upon signing their first ‘free-agency’ contract. Consequently, marginal decisions over employment retention during the rookie contract have substantial implications for earnings realised over a player’s career. We find subtle but significant differences in retention rates between Black and White players (approximately 3 percentage points) that can’t be explained by a comprehensive set of individual characteristics including their productivity. We also show that traditional wage gap estimates, which appear to show equal earnings between Black and White players conditional upon playing position and productivity, mask underlying disparities in career earnings that become apparent when adjusting for these unequal retention rates. |
| Keywords: | retention, wages, discrimination |
| JEL: | J71 J31 |
| Date: | 2025–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18079 |
| By: | Conzo, Pierluigi (University of Turin); Della Giusta, Marina (University of Turin); Dubois, Florent (University of Torino); Rosso, Giacomo (University of Turin); Razzu, Giovanni (University of Reading) |
| Abstract: | Mental health is vital for well-being and productivity, yet investment remains chronically low. We study how different framings of mental health investment affect cooperation and donations using a pre-registered online experiment across five European countries (N = 8, 312). Participants were randomly assigned to receive information emphasizing either individual benefits (Private Perspective), collective benefits (Public Perspective), or prevalence data (Neutral Perspective). All treatments significantly increase cooperation in a Public Goods Game and donations in a Charity Dictator Game, suggesting intrinsic motivation drives behavior. Only the Private Perspective increases personal normative expectations, while empirical expectations remain unaffected—suggesting that interventions influence moral beliefs more than beliefs about others’ actions. All treatments reduce self-reported mental health stigma, consistent with evidence from a list experiment, suggesting stigma reduction as a key mechanism. Heterogeneity analyses show stronger treatment effects among individuals with lived experience or prior concern, and reduced contributions under collective framings when public provision is perceived as adequate—consistent with a substitution effect between public and private action. Donations also decline in post- communist countries, aligning with historically lower institutional trust and weaker norms of private giving. These findings highlight how individual perceptions and institutional legacies shape behavioural responses, and suggest that perceived adequacy of public provision can backfire by discouraging private engagement—potentially trapping societies in a bad equilibrium of persistent underinvestment in mental health. |
| Keywords: | online survey experiment, stigma, donations, cooperation, mental health, information treatment |
| JEL: | C90 I12 I18 I31 |
| Date: | 2025–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18054 |