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on Human Capital and Human Resource Management |
| By: | Carpenter, Jeffrey P. (Middlebury College) |
| Abstract: | Fixed-wage workers comprise the bulk of the labor force and yet little is known about how they respond to wage changes. Given recent interest in theories of reciprocity and intrinsic motivation and their implications for effort provision, the neoclassical prediction seems less obvious today. To better understand the motivation of these workers, I estimate their labor supply using a real effort experiment. Two results stand out. First, no one theory seems to fit the pooled data. On average, people work considerably harder than the minimum but they do not respond to changes in the wage. Second, pooling the data is deceptive because there seem to be distinct types with differing responses to the wage. Most workers can be classified as reciprocal or intrinsically motivated and, indeed, these types respond as theory would predict: reciprocators return wage gifts with increased effort and extrinsic incentives crowd out motivation for intrinsic workers. |
| Keywords: | labor supply, fixed wage, reciprocity, intrinsic motivation, real effort, experiment |
| JEL: | C91 J22 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9778&r=hrm |
| By: | Keluoharju, Matti (Aalto University School of Business); Knüpfer, Samuli (BI Norwegian Business School); Tåg, Joacim (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses exceptionally rich data on Swedish corporate executives and their personal characteristics to study gender gaps in CEO appointments and pay. Both gaps are sizeable: 18% for CEO appointments and 27% for pay. At most one-eight of the gaps can be attributed to observable gender differences in executives’ and their firms’ characteristics. Further tests suggest that unobservable gender differences in characteristics are unlikely to account for the remaining gaps. Instead, our results are consistent with the view that male and female executives sharing equal attributes neither have equal opportunities to reach the top, nor are they equally paid. |
| Keywords: | CEOs; Compensation; Discrimination; Executives; Gender differences |
| JEL: | G34 J16 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2016–02–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1111&r=hrm |
| By: | Gharad Bryan; Dean Karlan; Jonathan Zinman |
| Abstract: | Empirical evidence on peer intermediation lags behind many years of lending practice and a large body of theory in which lenders use peers to mitigate adverse selection and moral hazard. Using a simple referral incentive mechanism under individual liability, we develop and implement a two-stage field experiment that permits separate identification of peer screening and enforcement effects. We allow for borrower heterogeneity in both ex-ante repayment type and ex-post susceptibility to social pressure. Our key contribution is how we deal with the interaction between these two sources of asymmetric information. Our method allows us to identify selection on the likelihood of repayment, selection on the susceptibility to social pressure, and loan enforcement. We estimate peer effects on loan repayment in our setting, and find no evidence of screening (albeit with an imprecisely estimated zero) and large effects on enforcement. We then discuss the potential utility and portability of the methodological innovation, for both science and for practice. |
| JEL: | C93 D12 D14 D82 O12 O16 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:59009&r=hrm |
| By: | Stockinger, Bastian (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Wolf, Katja (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "Several empirical studies find that worker inflows from more productive or otherwise superior firms increase hiring firms' productivity. We conduct a similar analysis for Germany, using a unique linked employer-employee data set, and ranking sending and hiring establishments by their median wage. We find that inflows from superior (higher-paying) establishments do not increase hiring establishments' productivity, but inflows from inferior establishments seem to. Further analyses suggest this effect is due to positive selectivity of such inflows from their sending establishments. Our findings can be interpreted as evidence of a reallocation process by which the best employees of lower-paying establishments become hired by higher-paying establishments. This process reflects the increasingly assortative pattern of worker mobility in Germany, to which our findings suggest a micro-foundation at the establishment and worker levels." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| JEL: | D24 J61 J62 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–02–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201607&r=hrm |
| By: | LAM, W. (University of Liege) |
| Abstract: | Firms can motivate workers by offering them social status (e.g. access to power and privileges) instead of higher pay. Much of the literature emphasizes that status raises work incentives, ignoring the impact of status on coordination. However, I show that when workers need to cooperate with each other and each of them has their own vested interests, too much status differences may exacerbate conflict over workers’ preferred actions, and hence distorts coordination. Moreover, it is likely to be profitable for firms to introduce status differential when promotions lead to a change in the roles of the workers. |
| Keywords: | status, coordination, promotion, authority, organization |
| JEL: | D2 L2 J3 |
| Date: | 2015–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cor:louvco:2015033&r=hrm |
| By: | Rui Castro (University of Western Ontario); Pavel Sevcik (ESG UQAM) |
| Abstract: | We study the aggregate productivity effects of firm-level financial frictions. Credit constraints affect not only production decisions but also household-level schooling decisions. In turn, entrepreneurial schooling decisions impact firm-level productivities, whose cross-sectional distribution becomes endogenous. In anticipation of future constraints, entrepreneurs under-invest in schooling. Frictions lower aggregate productivity because talent is misallocated across occupations, and capital misallocated across firms. In addition, firm-level productivities are also lower due to distortions induced by the schooling responses. We find that these effects combined account for about 1/5 of the U.S.-India aggregate productivity difference. Requiring the model to match schooling differences significantly amplifies the impact of frictions, and the model accounts for 58% of the aggregate productivity difference. |
| Keywords: | Aggregate Productivity; Financial Frictions; Entrepreneurship; Human Capital |
| JEL: | E24 I25 J24 O11 O15 O16 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwo:hcuwoc:20162&r=hrm |
| By: | Patricia Crifo (CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique - INSEE - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique, CIRANO - Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en analyse des organisations - Université de Montréal, Economix, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre la Défense, 200 Avenue de la République, 92001 Nanterre Cedex - affiliation inconnue); Marc-Arthur Diaye (EPEE - Centre d'Etudes des Politiques Economiques - Université d'Evry-Val d'Essonne); Sanja Pekovic (DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - Université Paris IX - Paris Dauphine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes how different combinations of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) dimensions affect corporate economic performance. We use various dimensions of CSR to examine whether firms rely on different combinations of CSR, in terms of quality versus quantity of CSR practices. Our empirical analysis based on an original database including 10,293 French firms shows that different CSR dimensions in isolation impact positively firms’ profits but their effect in term on intensity varies among CSR dimensions. Moreover, the findings on the qualitative CSR measure, based on interaction between its dimensions, show that the substitutability of these dimensions is highly significant for firm performance. However, in terms of the intensity, those interactions produce differential effects. Actually, asking whether a firm starting with a certain configuration cannot perform better by adding or removing some dimension(s) we found that only one configuration fulfills this requirement: green and HR. The interpretation is that when a firm starts with this configuration then it is better not to move to another configuration. In all other configurations, firms can always improve their profits either by adding or removing some dimensions. Finally, the profitability of CSR investments in French firms seems to rely on a specific qualitative mix of different CSR dimensions rather than a pure quantitative approach accumulating practices without designing a consistent set of interactions among them. |
| Keywords: | Corporate social responsibility,Firm performance,Substitutability,Complementarity,Trade-off,Simultaneous equations models |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01278585&r=hrm |
| By: | Steven A. Sass |
| Abstract: | Financial factors clearly influence retirement decisions, as everyone would like to have sufficient income when they leave the workforce. But numerous studies find that such factors are only a small part of the story. Non-financial considerations clearly contribute to the decision to retire. This brief reviews studies, mainly by the Social Security Administration’s Retirement Research Consortium, that examine how two types of non-financial factors affect retirement decisions: the worker’s on-the-job experience and the allure of retirement activities. The discussion proceeds as follows. The first section presents evidence that a positive work experience is a critical component in decisions of workers ages 65 and over to remain in the labor force. The second section identifies job characteristics that either incline workers to retire or to remain on the job. The third section examines how personal objectives affect work/retirement decisions. The final section concludes that non-financial benefits seem far more important than non-financial costs – both in keeping some workers in the labor force and drawing others into retirement. |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:issbrf:ib2016-3&r=hrm |
| By: | Wagner, N.; Rieger, M.; Voorvelt, K.J. |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effect of teacher gender and ethnicity on student evaluations of teaching quality at university. We analyze a unique data-set featuring mixed teaching teams and a diverse, multicultural, multi-ethnic group of students and teachers. Co-teaching allows us to study the impact of teacher gender and ethnicity on students’ evaluations of teaching exploiting within course variation in an empirical model with course-year fixed effects. We document a negative effect of being a female teacher on student evaluations of teaching, which amounts to roughly one fourth of the sample standard deviation of teaching scores. Overall women are 11 percentage points less likely to attain the teaching evaluation cut-off for promotion to associate professor. The effect is robust to a host of co-variates such as course leadership, teacher experience and research quality. There is no evidence of a corresponding ethnicity effect. Our results point to an important gender bias and indicate that the use of teaching evaluations in hiring and promotion decisions may put female lectures at a disadvantage. |
| Keywords: | student evaluations of teaching, gender, ethnicity, bias, course fixed effects |
| JEL: | I21 J71 |
| Date: | 2016–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ems:euriss:79869&r=hrm |
| By: | Qian, Meijun (Australian National University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the gender diversity in corporate boardrooms in Asia and the Pacific and how the diversity affects corporate performance. We find that boardroom gender diversity is low in Asia with 7.5% female representation on average in 2012, but showing a 1.8% improvement in 2013. The appointment of female directors and a gender-diverse boardroom are on average positively associated with a firm’s subsequent performance, but with large cross-country and cross-measurement differences. Firm performance is the highest when there are two females on the board. Using two-stage analyses, we find that (i) a firm’s past performance does not predict its choice to add female directors; (ii) cross-country differences in female corporate leadership respond to its economic demand and supply as measured by gender equality in college education, labor participation, wages, and infant survival; and (iii) female representation on the board, when determined by these economic factors, is a significant predictor of a firm’s future performance. |
| Keywords: | corporate performance; development equality; director choices; female leadership |
| JEL: | G38 J71 O16 |
| Date: | 2016–01–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbewp:0472&r=hrm |