Dario Pozzoli

The Effect of Learning by Hiring on Productivity

This work studies the phenomenon of inter- rm labor mobility as potential channel of knowledge transfer. Using data from the Danish employer-employee register, covering the period 1995-2005, it investigates how the knowledge embed- ded into recruited workers, coming from other rms, contributes to the process of knowledge di usion and boosts rms productivity. Speci cally, estimating both parametric (Cobb-Douglas) and semi-parametric production functions (Olley and Pakes, 1996; Levinsohn and Petrin, 2003), the impact of recruited technicians and highly educated workers on total factor productivity at the rm level is found to be signi cantly positive. A matching analysis, which allows for contin- uous treatment e ect evaluation (Hirano and Imbens, 2004), corroborates this nding.

Early Labour Market Returns to College Subject

We estimate early labour market outcomes of Italian university graduates across college subjects. We devote great attention to endogenous selection issues using alternative methods to control for potential self-selection associated with the choice of the degree subject in order to unravel the causal link between college major and subsequent outcomes in the labour market. Our results suggest that ‘quantitative’ fields (i.e. Sciences, Engineering, and Economics) increase not only the speed of transition into the first job and employment probability but also early earnings, conditional on employment.

The Transition to Work for Italian University Graduates

This study is focused on the transition from university to first job, taking into account the graduates’ characteristics and the effects relating to degree subject. A large data set from a survey on job opportunities for the 1998 Italian graduates is used. The paper uses a non-parametric discrete-time single-risk model to study employment hazard. Alternative mixing distributions have also been used to account for unobserved heterogeneity. The results obtained indicate that there is evidence of positive duration dependence after a short initial period of negative duration dependence. In addition, a competing-risk model has been estimated to characterize transitions out of unemployment.

Workplace practices and firm performance in manufacturing: A comparative study of Italy and Britain

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of innovative workplace practices in a sample of manufacturing establishments. Design/methodology/approach - The sample comprises manufacturing establishments located in Italy and a comparable sample extracted from the British Workplace Employee Relations Survey (WERS). The paper controls for sector, size, skill quality and industrial relations. Findings - Job rotation and technical training are positively associated with current performance in both samples. On average, British establishments are more productive: the different endowment in terms of workplace practices, skills and industrial relations accounts for 40 per cent of the gap, while the different efficacy of the endowment on performance accounts for the remainder. Originality/value - In both samples the introduction of team working implies a relatively important advance along the reorganisation process, which was undertaken in the early stages of reorganisation in British establishments but much later in Italian firms. Linking the progression of the reorganisation to non-convexities in supermodular production functions may be an interesting line of future research.

Determinants of grades in maths for students in economics

This paper investigates the determinants of grades achieved in mathematics by rst-year students in Economics. We use individual administrative data from 1993 to 2005 to t an educational production function. Our main ndings suggest that good secondary school achievements and the type of school attended are signi cantly associated with maths grades. Ceteris paribus, females typically do better than males. Since students can postpone the exam or repeat it when they fail, we also analyze the determinants of the elapsed time to pass the exam using survival analysis. Modeling simultaneously maths grades and the hazard of passing the exam, we nd that the overall hazard rate of passing the exam is higher for those students who get the higher grades. The longer students wait to take the exam, the less likely they are to obtain high grades

High‐Performance Management Practices and Employee Outcomes in Denmark

High-performance work practices are frequently considered to have positive e ects on corporate performance, but what do they do for employees? After showing that organizational innovation is indeed positively associated with rm performance, we investigate whether high-involvement work practices are associ- ated with higher wages, changes in wage inequality and workforce composition, using data from a survey directed at Danish private sector rms matched with linked employer-employee data. We also examine whether the relationship be- tween high-involvement work practices and employee outcomes is a ected by the industrial relations context

The Impact of Education and Occupation on Temporary and Permanent Work Incapacity

Abstract This paper investigates whether education and working in a physically demanding job causally impact temporary work incapacity (TWI), i. e. sickness absence and permanent work incapacity (PWI), i. e. the inflow to disability via sickness absence. Our contribution is to allow for endogeneity of both education and occupation by estimating a quasi-maximum-likelihood discrete factor model. Data on sickness absence and disability spells for the population of older workers come from the Danish administrative registers for 1998–2002. We generally find causal effects of both education and occupation on TWI. Once we condition on temporary incapacity, we find again a causal effect of education on PWI, but no effect of occupation. Our results confirm that workers in physically demanding jobs are broken down by their work over time (women more than men) but only in terms of TWI.

Gender differences in sorting

In this paper, we investigate the sorting of workers in firms to understand gender gaps in labor market outcomes. Using Danish employer-employee matched data, we find strong evidence of glass ceilings in certain firms, especially after motherhood, preventing women from climbing the career ladder and causing the most productive female workers to seek better jobs in more female-friendly firms in which they can pursue small career advancements. Nonetheless, gender differences in promotion persist and are found to be similar in all firms when we focus on large career advancements. These results provide evidence of the sticky floor hypothesis, which, together with the costs associated with changing employer, generates persistent gender gaps.