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on Human Capital and Human Resource Management |
| By: | Alan, Sule (University of Essex); Corekcioglu, Gozde (Kadir Has University); Sutter, Matthias (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods) |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the impact of a program aiming at improving the workplace climate in corporations. The program is implemented via a clustered randomized design and evaluated with respect to the prevalence of support networks, antisocial behavior, perceived relational atmosphere, and turnover rate. We find that professionals in treated corporations are less inclined to engage in toxic competition, exhibit higher reciprocity toward each other, report higher workplace satisfaction and a more collegial atmosphere. Treated firms have fewer socially isolated individuals and a lower employee turnover. The program's success in improving leader-subordinate relationships emerges as a likely mechanism to explain these results. |
| Keywords: | workplace climate, relational dynamics, leadership quality, RCT |
| JEL: | C93 M14 M53 |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14726&r= |
| By: | Johnston, Andrew C. (University of California, Merced) |
| Abstract: | I conduct a discrete-choice experiment with responses linked to administrative teacher and student records to examine teacher preferences for compensation structure and working conditions. I calculate willingness-to-pay for a rich set of work attributes. High-performing teachers have similar preferences to other teachers, but they have stronger preferences for performance pay. Taking the preference estimates at face value I explore how schools should structure compensation to meet various objectives. Under each objective, schools appear to underpay in salary and performance pay while overpaying in retirement. Restructuring compensation can increase both teacher welfare and student achievement. |
| Keywords: | teacher labor markets, compensation structure, teacher quality |
| JEL: | I20 J32 J45 M50 |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14831&r= |
| By: | Cattani, Luca; Dughera, Stefano; Landini, Fabio (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | The drivers of large within-industry heterogeneity in the use of non-standard employment are still poorly understood. Specifically, there is little evidence on how firm-specific factors related to the organization of work affect the diversity of hiring decisions. This paper contributes to this line of research by studying the existence of interlocking complementarities between job design and labour contract at the firm level. Using a formal model, we show that firms face two organizational equilibria: one in which job designs with high routine task intensity are matched with a large use of non-standard contracts; and the other in which low routine task intensity combines with a small use of non-standard contracts. These complementarities exist because while non-standard contracts allow firm to adjust to external shocks, they also provide little incentive to invest in firm-specific knowledge. Since the cost associated with the lack of such knowledge is lower (higher) in firms with high (low) routine task intensity, they are also more (less) likely to use this type of contracts. We test the predictions of our model using linked-employer-employee data from the Emilia-Romagna region. We build an index of firm's routine task intensity by matching information from INAPP data at the occupation level. The empirical evidence is consistent with our theory: the use of non-standard contracts is positively associated with routine task intensity at the firm level. This result holds controlling for a wide range of firm-specific and contextual covariates and it is robust to alternative estimation methods (OLS, panel and IV). The related managerial and policy implications are discussed. |
| Date: | 2021–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:202114&r= |
| By: | Adema, Joop (University of Munich); Nikolka, Till (German Youth Institute (DJI)); Poutvaara, Panu (University of Munich); Sunde, Uwe (University of Munich) |
| Abstract: | We exploit the unique design of a repeated survey experiment among students in four countries to explore the stability of risk preferences in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Relative to a baseline before the pandemic, we find that self-assessed willingness to take risks decreased while the willingness to take risks in an incentivized lottery task increased, for the same sample of respondents. These findings suggest domain specificity of preferences that is partly reflected in the different measures. |
| Keywords: | stability of risk preferences, measurement of risk aversion, COVID-19 |
| JEL: | D12 D91 G50 |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14755&r= |
| By: | Grund, Christian (RWTH Aachen University); Tilkes, Katja Rebecca (RWTH Aachen University) |
| Abstract: | Evidence shows that working time mismatch, i.e. the difference between actual and desired working hours, is negatively related to employees' job satisfaction. Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we examine the potential moderating effect of working time autonomy on this relation and we also consider the corresponding role of gender. First, individual fixed effects panel estimations reaffirm both the negative link of working hours mismatch and the positive relation of working time autonomy to employees' job satisfaction. Second, our results show a positive moderating relation of working time autonomy on the link between mismatch and job satisfaction. Third, our analyses hint at gender-specific differences: particularly women seem to benefit from the moderation role of working time autonomy. |
| Keywords: | working time mismatch, working hours discrepancies, job satisfaction, over-employment, Socio-Economic Panel, working time autonomy |
| JEL: | J22 J28 J81 M5 |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14732&r= |
| By: | Daniel Schaefer (Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre, Johannes-Kepler-Universität Linz); Carl Singleton (Department of Economics, University of Reading) |
| Abstract: | Low inflation has forced the topic of downward nominal wage rigidity (DNWR) back to the centre stage of macroeconomics. We use over a decade of representative payroll data from Great Britain to document novel facts about wage adjustments. We find that basic wages drive the cyclicality of marginal labour costs, which makes them the most relevant wage measure for macroeconomic models that incorporate wage rigidity. Basic wages show substantially more evidence of downward rigidity than previously documented. Every fifth hourly-paid and every sixth salaried employee normally sees no basic wage change from year-to-year, and very few experience cuts. Wage freezes were more common in the Great Recession and are far more likely in smaller firms. We also find evidence that employers compress wage growth when inflation is low, indicating that DNWR constrains wage setting. Further, we show that the wages of new hires and incumbent employees respond equally to the business cycle. These results all point to the importance of including DNWR in macroeconomic and monetary policy models, and our simulations demonstrate that the empirical extent of DNWR can cause considerable long-run output losses. |
| Keywords: | Downward nominal wage rigidity, Hiring wages, Unemployment fluctuations, Macroeconomic policy, Marginal labour costs |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J31 J33 |
| Date: | 2021–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rdg:emxxdp:em-dp2021-22&r= |