1,721,023 research outputs found
The Effect of Training on Productivity: Evidence from a Large Panel of Firms
No full textPurpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of training activity on labor productivity in a panel of Italian firms.
Design/methodology/approach
– The use of a large panel data of individual firms allows the author to properly account for the possible endogeneity of training activity and avoid aggregation biases typical in industry-level data.
Findings
– The paper finds that training has a positive and significant impact on productivity. While unobserved heterogeneity leads to overestimate the impact of training, failing to account for the endogeneity of training leads to underestimate its effects on productivity. Within occupational groups, training has large and significant effects for blue-collar workers, while the effects for executives and clerks are relatively small. Finally, using a measure of effective training intensity the paper finds that failing to account for training duration may lead to underestimate the effect of training on productivity.
Originality/value
– Our data set is unique in terms of size and coverage and overcomes several limitations of previous research using firm-level data. Moreover, besides estimating the overall effect of training on productivity, the paper allows to address some more specific questions. Does the effect of training depend on the type of worker being trained? What is the relevance of effective participation to training activity
On the Empirical Failure of Purchasing Power Parity Tests
No full textEmpirical research on the validity of the purchasing power parity (PPP) condition is generally based on real exchange rates built using the consumer price index (CPI), but fails to provide clear support to PPP. In this paper we show theoretically that, even if the law of one price (LOP) holds for traded goods, CPI-based real exchange rates are not mean reverting, and are neither stationary nor integrated. Therefore, both unit root and stationarity tests should reject their null. Our theoretical results are validated both by simulations and an empirical application
Skill demand and labour market concentration: evidence from Italian vacancies
No full textThe authors provide a novel interpretation of the relationship between skill demand and labour market concentration based on the training rationale.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use a novel data set on Italian online job vacancies during 2013-2018 to analyse the relationship between labour market concentration and employers' skill demand. The authors construct measures of market concentration and skill intensity in the local labour market. The authors regress the measures of skill demand on market concentration, controlling for sector, occupations and other features of the labour market. The authors also use the Hausman-Nevo instrument for market concentration.FindingsThe authors show that employers in a highly concentrated labour market demand competencies associated with the ability of workers to learn faster (e.g. social skills) rather than actual knowledge. They also require less experience but higher education. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that employers in more concentrated labour markets are more prone to train their employees. Instead of looking for workers who already have job-specific skills, they look for workers who can acquire them faster and efficiently. The authors provide a theoretical framework within which to analyse these aspects as well as providing a test for the relevant hypotheses.Practical implicationsIn addition to cross-countries differences in labour market regulations, the authors' findings suggest that policy authorities should consider the local labour market structure when studying workforce development programmes aimed at bridging the skill gap of displaced workers. Moreover, the authors show that market concentration can have relevant implications for human resource (HR) managers by affecting their recruitment behaviour through the demand for skills. In fact, concentrated markets tend to favour firms' collusion and anti-competitive behaviour that could strongly affect HR management practices.Originality/valueThe authors' paper innovates on the literature in a number of ways. First, the authors provide evidence of local labour market concentration in Italy. Second, the authors provide evidence of skill demand at the local level using a detailed skill taxonomy that goes beyond the classical distinction between high and low skills. Third, and most importantly, the authors provide evidence of the relationship between skill demand and labour market concentration. By analysing detailed skills and competencies, the authors take one step beyond understanding the features of labour demand in monopsonistic markets
Comparing the US financing sources during World wars and pandemics (Spanish flu vs. COVID-19)
No full textOur Letter centres around George J. Hall's and Thomas Sargent's article 'Three world wars: fiscal-monetary consequences' published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) in 2022 and representing a study of the US financing sources spanning over a century. We expand the analysis of the US financing sources (taxes, bonds, money) to combat the world wars and COVID-19 by adding another crisis, namely the Spanish flu (1918-1920). We assess the fiscal-monetary comparability of wars and pandemics and investigate whether the finding that taxation was less used to combat COVID-19 (as compared to WWI/WWII) applies to a comparable disease. By replicating their methodology, we reconstruct the US financing sources to combat the Spanish flu and conclude that this pandemic was financed more similarly to WWI/WWII than to COVID-19. While our findings reconfirm - COVID-19 is an exception both when compared to WWI/WWII and to the Spanish flu -, we provide explanations for this different mix of financing sources. Future research could investigate whether the 'war on COVID-19' followed by that one in Ukraine might re-create overlapping crises as for WWI and the Spanish flu
Restructuring as a signal: a simple formalization
No full textSeveral studies have stressed that, contrary to initial expectations, state-owned firms at the beginning of the transition undertook painful measures to adjust to the new economic environment. This paper investigates this behaviour in a simple game theoretic framework. It is argued that the massive amount of lay-offs created by state-owned firms during the initial phase of the transition can be interpreted as a signal directed to the banking sector in order to obtain more favourable financing conditions for the subsequent process of restructuring. The conclusions are strongly supported by Polish firm-level empirical evidence
Determinants of corporate capital structure: evidence from Hungarian firms
No full textThis paper investigates the capital structure of Hungarian firms using a cross-section and a panel data approach. The data set is composed of balance sheet data and information on market structure for 1100 firms from 1992 to 1996. Evidence is found of imperfections that constrain firms in the achievement of their optimal capital structure, but also some positive indications: there are no distortions typical of the planned system and no signs of the presence of soft budget constraints.
Comparing time series characteristics of official and web job vacancy data
No full textThis paper studies the relationship between a job vacancy population obtained from an international project based on web scraping of online job vacancies and job vacancies derived by the Eurostat job vacancy rate referred to Italian national statistics survey. We compare the time series properties of both time series between 2013 and 2018, globally and in each specific sector of economic activity. Using time series decomposition and cointegration analyses, we find that, apart from some specific sector, the web and national statistics office vacancies data present similar time series properties, suggesting that both time series represent the same underlying phenomenon, namely the real number of new vacancies in the Italian economy. The study confirms promising frontiers to measure in real time aggregate demand in the labour market based on web data
Measuring the monetary value of social relations: A hedonic approach
No full textThis paper presents an application of the hedonic approach to measure the monetary price of social relations. We use micro data for housing and labor markets in the 103 Italian province capitals to estimate the price of relational amenities and construct monetary indices of quality of relational life. We focus on time spent with friends, active participation in associations and frequency of going out for leisure activities as relational amenities, while controlling for standard amenities such as weather, environment, services, and socio-demographic characteristics. We find that individuals are willing to pay a positive and significant monetary price to live in cities where people spend more time with their friends. A one standard deviation increase in the share of those who meet their friends most frequently is worth an extra € 1150 per year in terms of higher housing costs and foregone wages
Investment decisions and the soft budget constraint: evidence from Hungarian manufacturing firms
Full text linkThis paper investigates the investment behaviour of a large panel of Hungarian
firms in the period 1989–99, in order to assess the impact of institutional and
regulatory changes on the efficiency of credit allocation. We find that the role of
financial factors for investment decisions has changed significantly after the introduction
of major financial reforms, and that firms were affected differently depending
on their ownership type. Reforms have hardened the budget constraint of private
domestic firms, particularly small ones, and reduced informational problems for
foreign-owned firms. State-owned firms remained subject to a soft budget constraint.
In particular, small state firms became more sensitive to financial conditions,
whereas large state firms were unaffected and kept operating under a soft budget
constraint
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