1,721,034 research outputs found
A simple comparative model of worker-managed and capital-managed digital platforms
Full text linkWe develop a simple model to study the comparativestatics of worker‐managed (WM) and capital‐managed(CM) app‐based labor platforms. The model assumesthat algorithmic management makes free‐riding andcollective decision‐making costs negligible and high-lights different pay policies as the distinctive featuredifferentiating WM and CM platforms, in an environ-ment where workers are financially constrained andcapital markets are imperfect. With very simplealgebra, we show that WM platforms may show greatercost efficiency and may be better able to benefit fromnetwork effects with respect to CM competitors. Yet,viability of WM firms may be critically impeded by theextra‐cost of the external capital, which enables CMplatforms to pay a wage premium. The optimal paypolicy of CM platforms is shown to vary depending onthe intensity of network effects. Reported anecdotalevidence is compatible with main model's results
Institutional Complementarities between Labour Laws and Innovation
Full text linkWe analyse how institutional complementarities between employee representation laws and dismissal restrictions influence aggregate innovation outcomes. We argue that greater employee voice, due to improved employee representation legislations, may spur innovative effort by employees only when shareholders cannot renegotiate ex-ante agreements with workers over revenue sharing, by threatening dismissal. We perform a panel regression analysis, exploiting country-sector panel data over the 1977–2005 period, and find that stronger employee representation laws in the presence of stricter firing restrictions are in fact associated with higher patenting activity. Consistently with our theoretical argument, the magnitude of this empirical relationship is seen to be relatively larger in those sectors where the human capital contribution to production is higher. Implications for the analysis of economic institutions and for legal policy making are proposed
Profit Sharing and Innovation across Organizational Layers
Full text linkIn this paper, we measure whether contractual profit sharing (PS) influences firm innovation and, if yes, how. We disentangle PS effects for different and possibly conflicting interest groups within the firm. We exploit the fact that PS schemes rarely cover the workers all together, but more often than not are used at some organizational layer in the corporate hierarchy and not at others. Based on the analysis of a representative sample of Italian firms, the key contribution of the study is to show that the structure of PS plans matters significantly for innovation. While PS for managers is associated with little or no improvement in innovation activity, PS for non-managers spurs the probability of observing innovation by about 5 to 12 percentage points. The difference between managerial and non-managerial PS effects appears wider for process, arguably incremental innovation. We also document how PS effects, particularly for non-managers, change depending on other firm level variables, such as size, unionization, exposure on international markets, the span of managerial control and some characteristics of the workforce. Policy implications are discussed
Dissecting environmental efficiency: The role of technology adoption and usage
No full textHow could firms best reduce their environmental impact? Should they change technology? Or could they do better with what they already have? This paper shows that one size does not fit all. We analyse a sample of polluting production plants (i.e. installations) regulated under the EU Emission Trading System. We employ a mixture model estimation to dissect environmental efficiency into a technology adoption component (what type of technology is used) and a technology usage component (how a technology is used). Our installation-level analysis shows that the share of installations adopting frontier technologies is about 21%. We also find that the average environmental efficiency gains that installations could reach by improving technology adoption and technology usage are 75% and 80% respectively. The analysis of balance-sheet data on parent companies reveals that better environmental technologies are adopted by larger, listed, multi-installation and international companies, while older firms and firms with higher intangible assets intensity more commonly show improved technology usage. © 2024 The Author
Are We Really Mama's Boys? How Incomes Affect Italians' Leaving Home Decisions
No full textThe aim of this paper is to identify the main determinants of Italians’ leaving home decisions. We use data from the Survey of Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) by the Bank of Italy. The empirical study is performed by cross-section probit and panel-probit estimation.
Contrary to the predominant literature’s claim, our findings unveil the positive and statistically significant effects of both children’s and parents’ income on the departure probability. We interpret this positive parents’ income effect as a signal for inter-household transfers. Finally, we distinguish by gender and find that while the young men’s leaving home is strongly dependent on such transfers, the same does not hold for young women
Industrial actions and firing regimes: How deregulating worker “Exit” reshapes worker “Voice”
No full textUsing data on more than 13000 European establishments over the 2009–2013 period, we analyze the
relationship between discharge regulation and industrial actions. We empirically answer the question as
whether stricter dismissal laws make EU establishments experience more frequent and intense industrial actions (work-to-rule, strikes and occupation). We find that a change from employment at-will to
a regime with very strict dismissal constraints is associated with an increase in the likelihood of observing an industrial action at the establishment-level ranging between 10.1 and 11.8 percentage points,
and that this effect reduces to around 6.5 percentage points when only company-specific industrial actions are considered. A correlation between discharge constraints and industrial actions is found also in
a difference-in-differences analysis, where we explore quasi-experimental variations in national dismissal
regulations. Although we are not able to establish causality, our findings are suggestive, as they document
the possible association between layoff deregulation and the decline of union activism in Europe.
© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
Governo dell’impresa e innovazione tecnologica: proprietà, lavoro e prospettive di riforma
No full textWhy Isn’t Uber Worker-Managed? A Model of Digital Platform Cooperatives
Full text linkThanks to algorithmic management, the digital platform sector does not require sophisticated governance structures and labour intensity tends to be higher than in traditional sectors. So, why arenâ€TMt usually digital labour platforms worker cooperatives? We develop a simple model to study the comparative viability of a worker-managed (WM) via-app labour platform firm vis-à -vis a capital-managed (CM) counterpart. Firms compete over workers by choosing the optimal size and (CM firms only) the pay policy. Given the size of the market, we show that WM platforms maximize per-capita incomes over a middle range interval of firm size. At the equilibrium size, viability of WM firms may be impeded by the costs of the external capital, no matter how low, which enable CM firms to pay a wage premium. The worker payoff in CM firms is higher in the presence of higher unit revenues and network effects (which improve the ability to pay of WM firms, thereby stimulating pay competition between platforms) and lower when WM platforms need to charge new members a fee to overcome free-riding problems faced by those who fund the initial investment. The model also shows that the conditions for worker buyouts are weaker than those required for WM platform creation from scratch, and that group incentive mechanisms allow WM platforms to better pursue quality improvements than CM firms, when digital techniques make the cost of effort relatively low
Employer-Employee Profit-Sharing and the Incentives to Innovate when the Dismissal Regulation Matters
Full text linkWe develop a simple incomplete-contract model of the relationship between worker participation to revenue sharing and innovation performance of firms, under firing regimes with different stringency. Stronger worker participation to profits is shown to increase innovation probability when employer-side hold-up is prevented by stringent layoff regulation and the human capital matters significantly. Vice-versa, under a strict layoff regulation, when the financial capital is relatively more important, the effects of worker participation devices may be reduced or inverted. Our results may help in understanding why there is no one-size-fits-all optimal strategy in the design of worker financial participation mechanisms for knowledge-intensive productions
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