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on Human Capital and Human Resource Management |
| By: | Baktash, Mehrzad B.; Jirjahn, Uwe |
| Abstract: | Concerns about corporate scandals and abusive leadership suggest that individuals with an opportunistic and manipulative personality sort into managerial positions. Indeed, a fledgling number of econometric studies have shown that individuals high in Machiavellianism are more likely to hold a management position. Our study takes that research an important step further by analyzing the moderating role of gender. It examines whether gender has an influence on how far Machiavellians climb the managerial hierarchy. Using representative data from Germany, we find that Machiavellianism increases the likelihood of holding a middle management position for both men and women. However, Machiavellianism is associated with a higher likelihood of occupying a top-level management position only among men but not among women. For men, the impact of Machiavellianism even appears to increase the further they climb the managerial hierarchy. These findings fit theoretical considerations. |
| Keywords: | Machiavellianism, Gender Career Gap, Women, Top-Level Managers, Managerial Hierarchy |
| JEL: | D90 J16 M12 M51 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1741 |
| By: | Alessandra Fenizia; Christos Makridis |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effects of the 2025 U.S. federal personnel reforms. Using a difference-in-differences design, we document a persistent decline in federal employment, employee engagement, and job satisfaction, alongside a temporary increase in burnout and job search activity. Subjective well-being also declines and remains depressed, indicating spillovers beyond the workplace. Effects are heterogeneous by political affiliation, with large responses among Democrats and Independents and muted responses among Republicans. We find no evidence of partisan differences in attrition, suggesting that deteriorating attitudes did not translate into sustained labor market exits or changes in workforce composition. |
| Keywords: | federal workforce; civil service reform; employee engagement; job satisfaction; public sector; Gallup Workforce Panel. |
| JEL: | J45 J28 H83 J24 |
| Date: | 2026–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gwc:wpaper:2026-006 |
| By: | Alex Farach; Alexia Cambon; Lev Tankelevitch; Connie Hsueh; Rebecca Janssen |
| Abstract: | Organizations have widely deployed generative AI tools, yet productivity gains remain uneven, suggesting that how people use AI matters as much as whether they have access. We conducted a field experiment with 388 employees at a Fortune 500 retailer to test two scaffolding interventions for human-AI collaboration. All participants had access to the same AI tool; we varied only the structure surrounding its use. A behavioral scaffolding intervention (a structured protocol requiring joint AI use within pairs) was associated with lower document quality relative to unstructured use and substantially lower document production. A cognitive scaffolding intervention (partnership training that reframed AI as a thought partner) was associated with higher individual document quality at the top of the distribution. Treatment participants also showed greater positive belief change across the session, though sensitivity analyses suggest this likely reflects recovery from carry-over effects rather than genuine training-induced shifts. Both findings are subject to design limitations including an AM/PM session confound, differential attrition, and LLM grading sensitivity to document length. |
| Date: | 2026–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2604.08678 |
| By: | Manuel Arellano (CEMFI, Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros); Orazio Attanasio (Yale University, NBER and CEPR); Margherita Borella (Università di Torino, CeRP-Collegio Carlo Alberto and CEPR); Mariacristina De Nardi (University of Minnesota, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, CEPR and NBER); Gonzalo Paz-Pardo (European Central Bank) |
| Abstract: | We develop a new approach to estimating earnings, job, and employment dynamics using subjective expectations data from the NY Fed Survey of Consumer Expectations. These data provide beliefs about future earnings offers and acceptance probabilities, offering direct information on counterfactual outcomes and enabling identification under weaker assumptions. Our framework avoids biases from selection and unobserved heterogeneity that affect models using realized outcomes. First-step fixed-effects regressions identify risk, persistence, and transition effects; second-step GMM recovers the covariance structure of unobserved heterogeneities such as ability, mobility, and match quality. We find lower risk and persistence of the individual productivity component than in prior work, but greater heterogeneity in ability and match quality. Simulations show that reduced-form estimates overstate persistence and volatility on individual-level productivity due to job transitions and sorting. After accounting for heterogeneity, volatility declines and becomes flat across the earnings distribution. These results underscore the value of expectations data. |
| Keywords: | Subjective expectations, earnings dynamics models. |
| JEL: | C23 C81 D15 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cmf:wpaper:wp2026_2605 |
| By: | Pawel Adrjan; Jonas Jessen; Carlos Victoria Lanzón |
| Abstract: | We examine whether restricting temporary contracts increases firms' investment in worker training, exploiting Spain's 2022 labour market reform. Using 3.1 million online job postings from 2018 to 2024, we implement a difference-in-differences design that leverages pre-reform variation in reliance on temporary contracts across occupations. More exposed occupations shifted toward permanent hiring and increased advertised training relative to less exposed occupations. Training rose by 4.3 percentage points, fully closing the pre-reform gap by 2024. These results provide evidence that longer expected employment duration increases firms' investment in training, identifying a channel through which labour market regulation can shape human capital formation. |
| Keywords: | temporary employment, on-the-job training, human capital investment, employment contracts |
| JEL: | J24 J41 J63 J68 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12594 |
| By: | Cristiano C. Carvalho; Trine E. Vattø (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how an often-overlooked source of pay transparency—the public disclosure of tax information—affects gender wage gaps. We exploit a 2001 change in Norway that made individual tax returns searchable online. Using matched employer–employee data and a difference in-differences design, we find that within-firm gender wage gaps fell by 2.2 percentage points (8.7 percent), driven by rising female wages. Effects are strongest in private-sector firms, industries with initially larger gaps, and municipalities that previously lacked easy access to printed tax lists. Wage gains are concentrated among job-changing women, suggesting that broad-based transparency mainly operates through improved information for job search. |
| Keywords: | Gender Wage Gap; Income Transparency; Public Disclosure of Tax Information |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J38 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:1033 |
| By: | Elliott, M.; Golub, B.; Leduc, M. V. |
| Abstract: | Complex organizations accomplish tasks through many steps of collaboration among workers. Corporate culture supports collaborations by establishing norms and reducing misunderstandings. Because a strong corporate culture relies on costly, voluntary investments by many workers, we model it as an organizational public good, subject to standard free-riding problems, which become severe in large organizations. Our main finding is that voluntary contributions to culture can nevertheless be sustained, because an organization's equilibrium productivity is endogenously highly sensitive to individual contributions. However, the completion of complex tasks is then necessarily fragile to small shocks that damage the organization's culture. |
| Keywords: | Corporate Culture, Networks, Fragility |
| Date: | 2026–03–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:2624 |
| By: | Bryson, Alex; Kauhanen, Antti; Rouvinen, Petri |
| Abstract: | Abstract Utilizing nationally representative cross-sectional and longitudinal data from Finland (2018–2023), we provide a population-level assessment of the relationship between AI and worker well-being. Contrary to international evidence suggesting a positive or an inverted U-shaped relationship, we find no systematic association between AI use intensity and job satisfaction. However, we do find that work engagement is higher among employees who are personally involved with AI, with the strongest association among intensive users for whom AI is an essential part of their work. Furthermore, technology-replacement fears have remained stable despite rapid AI advancement and do not predict subsequent labour market transitions. An interpretation is that Finland’s high-trust institutional environment and robust social safety nets may effectively moderate the disruptive psychological and economic shocks typically associated with rapid technological change. |
| Keywords: | Artificial intelligence, Job satisfaction, Work engagement, Technology-related fears, Labour market transitions |
| JEL: | J28 L23 |
| Date: | 2026–04–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:wpaper:137 |