Thomas Bolli

Job mobility, peer effects, and research productivity in economics

We analyse a comprehensive panel dataset of economists working at Austrian, German, and Swiss universities and investigate how job mobility and characteristics of other researchers working at the same university affect research productivity. On aggregate, we find no influence of these local research characteristics on the productivity of researchers, if we control for their unobserved characteristics. This finding indicates that with today’s information, communication and travelling technologies knowledge spillovers are globally available rather than dependent on physical co-presence. However, we find some evidence that high-productivity researchers could be more likely to benefit from local research characteristics.

Measurement of labor quality growth caused by unobservable characteristics

The standard economy-wide indices of labor quality (or human capital) largely ignore the role of unobservable worker characteristics. In this paper, we develop a methodology for identifying the contributions of both observable and unobservable worker characteristics in the presence of the incidental parameter problem. Based on data for Switzerland over the period 1991-2006, we find that a large part of growth in labor quality is caused by shifts in the distribution of unobservable characteristics. The contributions to growth attributed to education and age are corrected downwards, if unobservable worker characteristics are taken into account. Yet the standard indices of labor quality appear to be robust to this extension.

In my own time: tuition fees, class time and student effort in non-formal (or continuing) education

We develop and empirically test a model which examines the impact of changes in class time and tuition fees on student effort in the form of private study. The data come from the European Union’s Adult Education Survey, conducted over the period 2005–2008. We find, in line with theoretical predictions, that the time students devote to private study increases with tuition fees but decreases with class time, other things being equal.

Regional Differences in the Production Processes of Financial and Social Outputs of Microfinance Institutions

This study uses panel data of microfinance institutions across the world to compare production processes across regions, assess the relevance of unobserved heterogeneity and estimate economies of scale. Comparing a financial production process to a multidimensional production process that accounts for the presence of outreach in the objective function suggests that financial and social output reflect complements in South Asia but not in other regions. Furthermore, we find substantial economies of scale for a pure financial production process. However, accounting for outreach lowers estimated economies of scale, suggesting that producing outreach creates high transaction costs and requires exploitation of local knowledge.

Beyond employer engagement: measuring education-employment linkage in vocational education and training programmes

Abstract The effectiveness of vocational education and training (VET) depends on the quality of interactions between the actors from the education and employment systems, which ensure the correspondence of skills supply and demand. This paper develops an instrument to measure education-employment linkage (EEL) by capturing EEL in each sub-process where these actors can and should interact. Surveying VET experts from 18 countries suggests that countries with dual VET have the highest EEL, while the included Asian countries score lowest in terms of EEL. The analysis further reveals that the three most important sub-processes are employer involvement in the definition of qualification standards; employer involvement in deciding the timing of curriculum updates; and the combination of workplace training with classroom education.

Vertical educational diversity and innovation performance

This paper uses panel data of Swiss firms to analyze the impact of education-level diversity in the workforce on innovation performance, addressing endogeneity by exploiting within-firm variation as well as variation in labor supply across regions. We find that vertical educational diversity increases the extensive margin of R&D and product innovation, particularly new product innovation. However, the relationship with process innovation, R&D intensity, and product innovation intensity is insignificant or even negative. These results are in line with the idea that vertical educational diversity enhances the creative moment of the invention phase, while it might affect the commercialization phase negatively due to the dominance of coordination and communication costs relative to the gains in creativity.

Comparative advantages of school and workplace environment in skill acquisition

This paper sheds light on the questions how important competences are and which competences can best be learned at school and which competences can be acquired better in the workplace. Exploiting data from a survey among professional tertiary education and training business administration students and their employers in Switzerland, we find that competences related to strategic management, human resource management, organizational design and project management processes are most suitable to be taught in school. However, the results further suggest that soft skills can be acquired more effectively in the workplace than at school. The only exceptions are analytical thinking, joy of learning and organizational competences, for which school and workplace are similarly suitable. Thereby, the paper provides empirical evidence regarding the optimal choice of the learning place for both human resource managers as well as educational decision makers who aim to combine education and training, e.g. in an apprenticeship.The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the questions as to how important skills are; which skills can best be learned at school, and which skills can be acquired better in the workplace.,The authors exploit data from a survey among professional tertiary education and training business administration students and their employers in Switzerland.,The authors find that skills used in the business processes strategic management, human resource management, organizational design, and project management are most suitable to be taught in school. However, the results further suggest that soft skills can be acquired more effectively in the workplace than at school. The only exceptions are analytical thinking, joy of learning and organizational soft skills, for which school and workplace are similarly suitable.,The paper provides empirical evidence regarding the optimal choice of the learning place for both human resource managers as well as educational decision makers who aim to combine education and training, e.g. in an apprenticeship.,Little evidence regarding the optimal learning place exists.

Comparative Advantages of School and Workplace Environment in Competence Acquisition: Empirical Evidence From a Survey Among Professional Tertiary Education and Training Students in Switzerland

This paper sheds light on the questions how important competences are and which competences can best be learned at school and which competences can be acquired better in the workplace. Exploiting data from a survey among professional tertiary education and training business administration students and their employers in Switzerland, we find that competences related to strategic management, human resource management, organizational design and project management processes are most suitable to be taught in school. However, the results further suggest that soft skills can be acquired more effectively in the workplace than at school. The only exceptions are analytical thinking, joy of learning and organizational competences, for which school and workplace are similarly suitable. Thereby, the paper provides empirical evidence regarding the optimal choice of the learning place for both human resource managers as well as educational decision makers who aim to combine education and training, e.g. in an apprenticeship.

Evaluation des Rahmenlehrplans für den Bildungsgang «dipl. Betriebswirtschafter/in HF» - Erfüllt der Rahmenlehrplan HFW seine Ziele?

Die vorliegende Studie untersucht, ob der Rahmenlehrplan des Bildungsgangs «dipl. Betriebswirtschafter/in Hohere Fachschule» an den Hoheren Fachschulen fur Wirtschaft (RLP HFW) den Anforderungen der Studierenden und Arbeitgebern gerecht wird. Dabei sollen Schwachstellen identifiziert werden, die auf Verbesserungspotential im Rahmen einer Revision des RLP HFW hinweisen.

Evaluation des Rahmenlehrplans für den Bildungsgang "dipl. Betriebswirtschafter/in HF": Erfüllt der Rahmenlehrplan HFW seine Ziele? Schlussbericht vom 26. Mai 2015

Die vorliegende Studie untersucht, ob der Rahmenlehrplan des Bildungsgangs «dipl. Betriebswirtschafter/in Hohere Fachschule» an den Hoheren Fachschulen fur Wirtschaft (RLP HFW) den Anforderungen der Studierenden und Arbeitgebern gerecht wird. Dabei sollen Schwachstellen identifiziert werden, die auf Verbesserungspotential im Rahmen einer Revision des RLP HFW hinweisen.