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on Human Capital and Human Resource Management |
| By: | Farchy, Emily |
| Abstract: | Can a brain drain be good for development? Many studies have established the theoretical possibility of such a brain gain. Yet it is only recently that the relaxation of data constraints has allowed for sound empirical assessments. In utilizing the dramatic policy change that accompanied European Union accession as a natural experiment, this paper is able to assuage fears of reverse causality between migration and human capital formation. The results highlight a significant impact of European Union accession on human capital formation indicating that the prospect of migration can indeed fuel skill formation even in the context of middle-income economies. And, if accompanied by policies to promote return migration, as well as a functioning credit market to enable private investment, international labor mobility could represent a powerful tool for growth. |
| Keywords: | Population Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Labor Policies,Tertiary Education,Access to Finance |
| Date: | 2009–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4845&r=hrm |
| By: | N. NGOC THANG; D. BUYENS |
| Abstract: | Although there has been growing studies of the effects of training on firm performance, research attention has been limited to the contextual conditional that moderate the training- firm performance relationship. In this study, we used a contingency approach to examines the relationship between training, organizational strategy and firm performance. Results of regression from The Vietnam Employer survey 2007 show that quality and flexibility strategies moderated the training - firm sales and productivity relationship. However, we found no significant of the moderating effects of cost strategy on the training- firm performance relationship. |
| Keywords: | training; organizational strategy; firm performance |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:08/541&r=hrm |
| By: | Benoît Mahy (Université Mons-Hainaut, WRC and DULBEA); François Rycx (Centre Emile Bernheim, DULBEA, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels and IZA-Bonn.); Mélanie Volral (Université Mons-Hainaut and WRC) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of wage dispersion on firm productivity in different working environments. More precisely, it examines the interaction with: i) the skills of the workforce, using a more appropriate indicator than the standard distinction between white- and blue collar-workers, and ii) the uncertainty of the firm economic environment, which has, to our knowledge, never been explored on an empirical basis. Using detailed LEED for Belgium, we find a hump-shaped relationship between (conditional) wage dispersion and firm productivity. This result suggests that up to (beyond) a certain level of wage dispersion, the incentive effects of “tournaments” dominate (are dominated by) “fairness” considerations. Findings also show that the intensity of the relationship is stronger for highly skilled workers and in more stable environments. This might be explained by the fact that monitoring costs and production-effort elasticity are greater for highly skilled workers and that in the presence of high uncertainty workers have less control over their effort-output relation and associate higher uncertainty with more unfair environments. |
| Keywords: | Wage dispersion, labour productivity, working environments, personnel economics, linked employer-employee data. |
| JEL: | J31 J24 M52 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:09-012&r=hrm |
| By: | Burcu Türkcan (Department of Economics, Ege University); Erkan Erdil (Department of Economics, Middle East Technical University); Ý. Hakan Yetkiner (Department of Economics, Izmir University of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper tests the impact of ICT on economic growth for underdeveloped and developing countries by using a panel dataset for the period of 1995-2006. We first develop the theory between ICT and economic growth. We show that ICT capital has a positive effect both on long-run and transitional income per capita, if it is considered as a factor of production. Next, we estimate a panel data set with 131 underdeveloped and developing countries under the assumption that ICT is one of the determining factors of economic growth. We find that ICT has positive and significant effect on economic growth even after the use of some control variables. |
| Keywords: | ICT, economic growth, Panel Data, GMM, human capital, developing countries, underdeveloped countries |
| JEL: | C33 O5 O33 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:izm:wpaper:0901&r=hrm |
| By: | N. NGOC THANG; N. VAN THU; D. BUYENS |
| Abstract: | This study uses data from the Vietnam Employer survey to measure the impact of training programs on firm performance. From the survey of 196 companies, the major findings indicate that companies that implemented training in 2006 have increased sales and productivity of both manufacturing and non-manufacturing companies in 2006. However, manufacturing companies that implemented training programs after 2005 lead to an increase of 9 percent in total sales and 9.1 percent in productivity per year between 2005 and 2006 but has no statistically significant effect on 2005-2006 percent change in sales and productivity of non-manufacturing companies if these companies provided training after 2005 |
| Keywords: | Training; sales; productivity; firm performance. |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:08/538&r=hrm |
| By: | Anna Stepanova |
| Abstract: | In a two-stage R&D game of process innovation, we investigate the effect of exogenously changing R&D spillovers and market concentration on the equilibrium level of effective cost reduction, total output, profits and social welfare. Interpreting spillover as a measure of patent protection, we find that weaker patent protection results in less R&D. We also show that firms prefer weaker patent protection, but social welfare is maximized for higher levels of patent protection. In terms of market concentration we show that firm profits decrease with increasing numbers of firms. Social welfare is typically maximized under oligopoly with the optimal number of firms depending on the level of spillover and efficiency of R&D investment. |
| Keywords: | oligopoly; R&D; competition; spillover process; cost reduction; market concentration |
| JEL: | C72 L13 O31 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ukc:ukcedp:0901&r=hrm |
| By: | M. KNOCKAERT; B. CLARYSSE; M. WRIGHT; A. LOCKETT |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we study which VC firm and investment manager related factors drive the VC’s attitude towards academic spin-out investing by taking an agency and human capital perspective. In order to do so, we use a unique hand-collected dataset involving 68 investment managers working at early stage VCs in Europe who were interviewed and provided us with information on the fund characteristics and their human capital. First, the results show that academic spin-out investors work to a large extent at publicly funded VCs that often engage in a very hands-on type of postinvestment behaviour. Second, the results show that human capital is associated with the willingness of the investment manager to invest in academic spin-outs. Investment managers that had worked in an academic environment and thus have similar human capital compared to the academic founders were more inclined to invest in academic spin-outs. Other specific human capital, such as technical education, and general human capital were not found to be associated with the investment manager’s interest in academic spin-out investing, except for the amount of entrepreneurial experience that negatively affected the attitude towards academic spin-outs. |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:08/537&r=hrm |
| By: | Novarese, Marco |
| Abstract: | According to a wide literature persons are not able to evaluate their own skills and knowledge, but the discussion on the nature, extension and determinants of this phenomenon is still open. This paper aims at proposing new empirical evidence on overconfidence and its determinants, trying to find out the possible effect of past performance on present optimism. I test my students' calibration and confidence in predicting their future results, comparing their expectations and real grades. My analysis allows showing the existence of overconfidence, its reduction in two following tests, and its non linear relation with students' capacities. Besides, I focus my attention on the effect of the grade my students got at the end of high school. This is used a proxy of their past experience and habit to get good or bad grades. Past success determined overconfidence. This idea is connected to the literature on heuristics and rule based perception. |
| Keywords: | overconfidence; expectations; learning; inertia; rule based behavior; economic education |
| JEL: | D83 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:13754&r=hrm |