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on Human Capital and Human Resource Management |
| By: | Kim, Seula (Pennsylvania State University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how worker beliefs and job prospects impact the wages and growth of young firms, as well as the aggregate economy. Building a heterogeneous-firm directed search model where workers gradually learn about firm types, I find that learning generates endogenous wage differentials for young firms. High-performing young firms must pay higher wages than equally high-performing old firms, while low-performing young firms offer lower wages than equally low-performing old firms. Reduced uncertainty or labor market frictions lower the wage differentials, thereby enhancing young firm dynamics and aggregate productivity. The results are consistent with U.S. administrative employee-employer matched data. |
| Keywords: | Wage Differentials, Firm Dynamics, Learning, Search Frictions, Uncertainty |
| JEL: | E20 E24 J31 J41 J64 L25 L26 M13 M52 M55 |
| Date: | 2025–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17655 |
| By: | Marydas, Sneha (RS: GSBE MGSoG, Maastricht Graduate School of Governance); Mathew, Nanditha (Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, RS: GSBE MORSE, RS: GSBE MGSoG); De Marzo, Giordano; Pietrobelli, Carlo (RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research, Mt Economic Research Inst on Innov/Techn) |
| Abstract: | In this study, using a novel dataset that matches firm-level data with online job vacancy data, we investigate the effects of firms’ digital technology adoption on future hiring and the dynamics of hiring and training, focusing on different types of technologies and categories of occupations. First, we examine the impact of adopting different types of digital technologies, namely AI, Advanced ICT, and Basic ICT, on future firm hiring. Our findings reveal that less advanced digital jobs (eg. Basic ICT, Advanced ICT) are substituted by more advanced digital jobs (eg. AI), while the advanced technology adoption by firms leads to increased overall hiring of non-digital roles. Second, we show that there is a positive relationship between training and new hiring only for one occupational category, namely, managers, with no significant relationship for other occupations. Third, we investigate the joint effect of training and technology adoption for firm performance. Our findings reveal that digital technology adoption enhances a firm’s financial performance only when combined with internal staff training. The sole exception is AI, which yields positive performance benefits even in the absence of training. |
| JEL: | O33 O12 L20 D22 |
| Date: | 2025–02–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2025004 |
| By: | Bertheau, Antoine (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Kudlyak, Marianna (Research Department, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco); Larsen, Birthe (Dept. of Economics, Copenhagen Business School); Bennedsen, Morten (Dept. of Economics, University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | We use a novel large-scale survey of firms, implemented in Denmark in 2021 and linked to administrative data, to study why firms lay off workers instead of cutting wages. Our questions on layoffs, wage cuts, and the link between them provide new insights into firms' strategies for adjusting labor in response to adverse shocks. We find that layoffs are more prevalent than wage cuts, but wage cuts are not rare in firms experiencing revenue reduction and were used by 15% of such firms. Employers are hesitant to cut wages in many instances because they see wage cuts as a poor substitute for layoffs. First, firms report that lowering wages triggers costs through the impact on morale and quits. Comparing these costs with potential savings from wage cuts, most employers in the survey agree that a wage reduction would not have saved jobs. Second, firms report that a crisis is an opportune time for layoffs because of lower opportunity costs of restructuring and because layoffs during a crisis are perceived by workers as more fair. We find that firms that report such opportunistic layoffs are less likely to implement wage cuts. |
| Keywords: | Wage rigidity; Layoffs |
| JEL: | D22 J23 J30 J63 |
| Date: | 2025–02–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2025_004 |
| By: | Eline Moens; Louis Lippens; Kathleen Vangronsvelt; Ans De Vos; Stijn Baert (-) |
| Abstract: | At a time when numerous organisations are urging a return to the office while many employees prefer to continue teleworking, it is crucial to ascertain the optimal level of telework intensity. In the present study, we determine this ideal level with respect to self-rated employee attitudes, behaviour, well-being, social relations and professional growth. Drawing on a five-wave longitudinal dataset, we apply fixed effects regression analyses to investigate associations between telework intensity and various dimensions of workplace experience. We offer more robust empirical evidence for favouring hybrid work schedules over an office-only or telework-only regime owing to significant advances in causal interpretation of linear and non-linear associations compared to the majority of existing studies that examine linear associations based on cross-sectional data. Our results point toward an inverted U-shaped association between telework intensity and self-rated job satisfaction, work-life balance, relationships with colleagues and professional development, with optimal levels peaking around 50% teleworking. For task efficiency and work concentration, the association appears to be concave with a plateau, stabilising at teleworking levels above 70%. Only between telework intensity and employer connectedness do we observe a slightly negative linear association. |
| Keywords: | Telework intensity, Workplace experience, Hybrid work schedules, Longitudinal |
| JEL: | I31 J24 J28 J32 J81 M51 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:25/1106 |
| By: | Almar, Frederik (Aarhus University); Friedrich, Benjamin (Northwestern University); Reynoso, Ana (University of Michigan); Schulz, Bastian (Aarhus University); Vejlin, Rune Majlund (Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how family and firm investments interact to explain gender gaps in career achievement. Using Danish administrative data, we first document novel evidence of this interaction through a “spousal effect” on firm-side career investments. This effect is accounted for by family labor supply choices that shape worker characteristics, which then influence firms’ training and promotion decisions. Our main theoretical contribution is to develop a quantitative life cycle model that captures these family-firm interactions through household formation, families’ joint career and fertility choices, and firms’ managerial training and promotion decisions. We then use the estimated model to show that the interaction between families and firms in the joint equilibrium of labor and marriage markets is important when evaluating firm-side and family-side policy interventions. We find that gender-equal parental leave and a managerial quota can both improve gender equality, but leave implies costly skill depreciation, whereas the quota raises aggregate welfare, in part through adjustments in marital sorting towards families that invest in women. |
| Keywords: | Gender inequality, career investments, firm training, management promotions, marriage market matching |
| Date: | 2025–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17653 |