Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Labor productivity'

A la següent tesi, estudio com afecta la innovació als mercats laborals: com s’ origina i quines són les seves conseqüències per a la població activa.. En els dos primers capítols, la font d’ un augment de la productivitat i l’ activitat innovadora són les xarxes de col·laboradors. El tercer capítol se centra en l’ automatització, que en si mateixa és producte d’ un augment de l’ activitat innovadora. En aquest capítol s’ estudia com l’automatització afecta l’estructura de l’ocupació, posant èmfasi en la mobilitat de treballadors, les seves opcions ocupacionals. Al Capítol 1, faig un estudi sobre les decisions de contractació ferma, fent èmfasi en l’efecte de la xarxa social sobre el rendiment de les empreses. La xarxa social de l’empresa simplement agilitza el procés de contractació o facilita, a més, la selecció de persones altament qualificades? En aquest capítol, mitjançant dades coincidents d’ empresaris i empleats del Veneto s’ estudia el paper dels vincles en les decisions de contractació de les empreses. Noves troballes empíriques demostren que les contractacions de la pròpia xarxa de col·laboradors de l’ empresa augmenten significativament la seva productivitat. Un augment del 10% de les contractacions de xarxa incrementa la productivitat en un 1% aproximadament. Les evidències apunten que els vincles dels col·laboradors augmenten la productivitat de l’empresa principalment a través de competències específiques de la indústria, el que suggereix que els empresaris poden utilitzar contactes informals per contractar treballadors altament qualificats. Per tant, les xarxes socials podrien facilitar la transmissió d’ habilitats i difusió de coneixements específics per a la feina. En el Capítol 2 ens basem en el capítol anterior estudiant el paper de la xarxa de companys de feina en l’ activitat innovadora d’ empreses i la difusió del coneixement. Aquest capítol presenta evidències directes que mostren fins a quin punt la innovació de les empreses està afectada per l’ accés a mà d’ obra experimentada a través de la xarxa. Utilitzem un únic conjunt de dades que coincideix amb els registres administratius d’ empresaris-treballadors del nord-centre d’ Itàlia, una regió amb molts clústers industrials d’ èxit, amb dades de patents del període 1987-2008. Els desplaçaments dels inventors a causa del tancament de plantes generen xocs d’ oferta de mà d’ obra a les plantes dels seus anteriors col·laboradors. Estimem (a) models d’ estudi d’ esdeveniments on el tractament és la mobilitat d’ un inventor connectat i (b) especificacions IV on utilitzem el desplaçament d’ un inventor connectat com a instrument per a la contractació d’ un nou inventor connectat. Les estimacions indiquen que la millora de la capacitat d’ utilitzar inventors a la xarxa dels seus empleats augmenta l’ activitat patentada a les plantes. Al Capítol 3, estudio els efectes de la automatització de llocs de treball als mercats de treball i a la mobilitat de treballadors. Demostro que la mobilitat de treballadors amb risc d’automatització tenen, de mitjana, 10 punts percentuals mes de probabilitat de canviar la seva categoria laboral. Les taxes de mobilitat dins de les ocupacions amb una elevada exposició són monòtones, el que fa notar que els treballadors menys qualificats canvien d’ ocupació amb més freqüència. A més, la direcció de la mobilitat és a la baixa: les persones amb risc d’automatització passen a ocupacions amb salaris mitjans més baixos. Aquest capítol proposa un model de cerca i concordança amb acceleració tecnològica i acumulació de capital humà. Els resultats mostren que la resposta de l’ economia al xoc d’ automatització segueix de prop els patrons observats a les dades entre 1996 i 2012. L’ automatització laboral ocupa el 79% de l’ augment de la bretxa de mobilitat.
En la siguiente tesis, estudio cómo la innovación afecta los mercados laborales: cómo se origina y cuáles son sus consecuencias para la fuerza laboral. En los primeros dos capítulos, la fuente de un aumento en la productividad y la actividad innovadora son las redes sociales. El tercer capítulo se centra en la automatización, que es un producto de un aumento en la actividad innovadora. En ese capítulo estudio cómo la automatización afecta la estructura del empleo, con énfasis en los trabajadores desplazados: su movilidad ocupacional. En el Capítulo 1 de esta tesis, investigo el efecto de las redes sociales en el desempeño de la empresa. ¿Qué hace que los contactos informales sean atractivos para los empleadores? Utilizo datos coincidentes de empleadores y empleados de Veneto y estudio el papel de los vínculos de compañeros de trabajo en las decisiones de contratación de las empresas. Nuevos hallazgos empíricos muestran que las contrataciones de la propia red social de la empresa aumentan significativamente su productividad. Documento que un aumento del 10% en las contrataciones conectadas aumenta la productividad en aproximadamente un 1%. La evidencia señala que los vínculos de compañeros de trabajo aumentan la productividad de la empresa principalmente a través de habilidades específicas de la industria. Sugiere que los empleadores pueden utilizar contactos informales para emplear a trabajadores altamente calificados. Por lo tanto, las redes sociales pueden facilitar la transmisión de habilidades específicas para el trabajo. En el Capítulo 2, me baso en el capítulo anterior y estudio la importancia de las redes sociales en la actividad innovadora de las plantas. Este capítulo presenta evidencia directa sobre cómo la innovación de las plantas se ve afectada por el acceso a mano de obra cualificada conectada a través de la red social. Utilizo un conjunto de datos único que coincide con los registros administrativos de empleadores y empleados del centro-norte de Italia, una región con muchos grupos industriales exitosos, con datos de patentes para el período 1987-2008. Los desplazamientos de inventores debido al cierre de plantas generan perturbaciones en la oferta de mano de obra a las plantas que emplean a sus compañeros de trabajo anteriores. Estimo modelos de estudio de eventos donde el tratamiento es el desplazamiento de un inventor conectado y especificaciones IV donde uso el desplazamiento de un inventor conectado como instrumento para la contratación de un inventor conectado. Las estimaciones indican que la capacidad mejorada para emplear inventores dentro de la red de sus empleados aumenta la actividad de patentamiento de las plantas. En el Capítulo 3, estudio los efectos de la automatización del trabajo en los mercados laborales y los trabajadores desplazados. Muestro que los trabajadores desplazados en riesgo de automatización tienen en promedio 10 puntos porcentuales más de probabilidad de cambiar su amplia categoría ocupacional. Las tasas de movilidad dentro de las ocupaciones de alta exposición son monótonas, lo que indica que los trabajadores de bajos ingresos cambian sus ocupaciones con más frecuencia. Además, la dirección de la movilidad es descendente: las personas en riesgo de automatización cambian a ocupaciones con salarios promedio más bajos. Este capítulo propone un modelo de búsqueda y comparación con aceleración tecnológica y acumulación de capital humano. La decisión de reasignación de personas desempleadas depende de su nivel de capital humano y de la transferencia de habilidades entre dos ocupaciones. Los resultados muestran que la respuesta de la economía al choque de automatización sigue los patrones observados en los datos entre 1996 y 2012. La automatización del trabajo representa el 79 por ciento del aumento en la brecha de movilidad.
In the following thesis I study how innovation affects labor markets: how it originates and what are its consequences for the labor force. In the first two chapters the source of an increase in productivity and innovative activity are co-worker networks. The third chapter focuses on automation, which itself is a product of an increase in innovative activity. In that chapter I study how automation affects employment structure, with emphasis on displaced workers: their occupational choices and human capital. In Chapter 1 of this thesis, To work or to network? - a study of firm hiring decisions, I investigate the effect of social network on firm performance. What renders informal contacts attractive to employers? Does firm’s social network simply speed up the hiring process or it additionally facilitates selection of high-skilled individuals? Using matched employer-employee data from Veneto, an industrial region in northern Italy, this chapter studies the role of co-worker links in firms’ hiring decisions. Novel empirical findings show that the hires from firm’s own co-worker network increase significantly its productivity. I find that 10% surge in connected hires increases productivity by approximately 1%. The event study analysis reveals that the effect lasts up to three years following the hire. The evidence points that the co-worker links increase firm productivity mainly through industry-specific skills, which suggests that employers may use informal contacts to poach high-skilled workers. Hence, social networks might facilitate the transmission of job-specific skills and knowledge diffusion. In Chapter 2, Inventors’ Coworker Networks and Innovation (joint with Sabrina Di Addario and Michel Serafinelli), we build on the previous chapter by studying the role of coworker network in plants’ innovative activity and knowledge diffusion. This chapter presents direct evidence showing the extent to which plants’ innovation is affected by access to knowledgeable labor connected through the co-worker network. We use a unique dataset that matches administrative employer-employee records from north-central Italy, a region with many successful industry clusters, to patent data for the period 1987-2008. Displacements of inventors due to plant closures generate labor supply shocks to plants that employ their previous co-workers. We estimate (a) event-study models where the treatment is the displacement of a connected inventor and (b) IV specifications where we use the displacement of a connected inventor as instrument for the hire of a connected inventor. Estimates indicate that the improved capacity to employ inventors within their employees’ network increases plants’ patenting activity. In Chapter 3, I study the effects of job automation on labor markets and displaced workers. How does job automation affect reallocation decisions of displaced workers? I show that displaced workers at risk of automation have on average 10 percentage points higher probability of changing their broad occupational category. The mobility rates within high exposure occupations are monotone, pointing that low earners switch their occupations more frequently. Furthermore, the direction of mobility is downward: individuals at risk of automation switch into occupations with lower average wages. To evaluate the role of job automation in the evolution of occupational mobility, this chapter proposes a search and matching model with technological acceleration and human capital accumulation. The reallocation decision of unemployed individuals depends on their human capital level and skill transferability between two occupations. The results show that the response of the economy to automation shock follows closely patterns observed in the data between 1996 and 2012. Job automation accounts for 79 percent of the increase in mobility gap. This in turn leads to output losses due to skill transferability mechanism and the fact.

Thesis advisor: Andrew Beauchamp
Thesis advisor: Arthur Lewbel
This thesis sheds light on two cutting-edge topics in Labor Economics, peer effects in the workplace and non-cognitive skills, and makes a methodological contribution to the related literature. The literature on peer effects in the workplace seeks to better understand co-workers' effect on an individual's productivity through the interactions among workers beyond the production technology. In the first essay, titled Learning When It Counts: Evidence from Professional Bowling Tournaments, I test the hypothesis that a worker can improve productivity by learning from peer co-workers in high-skill jobs. While demand for high-skill workers has been increasing, high-skill jobs often require workers to make a decision, facing uncertainty underlying their tasks. Highly skilled professionals have deep insights to pick up meaningful patterns of information. Therefore, if they are in an environment that allows them to learn additional information from co-workers, their productivity can improve. In this paper, I examine the productivity effects of learning among high-skill peers about uncertain conditions underlying their tasks with variations in the "space of ideas," exploiting a unique, novel dataset from professional bowling competitions. Specifically, a bowler learns about lane conditions in part by watching his competitor bowl on the same lane. A right-handed bowler learns more relevant (to his task) information from competing with another right-hander than with a left-hander, as the used part of the lanes (the proximate space of ideas) varies with handedness. I compare the probabilities of bowling a strike of bowlers matched with like-handed competitors versus opposite-handed competitors. I find a large impact of the same ideas space on learning, e.g, being paired with a like-handed bowler increases strike probability by 14 percentage points. This finding adds evidence for the existence of peer effects in high-skill jobs. I also show that learning curves exist only when bowlers are in same-handed match-ups, by examining how these differences change from one frame to the next over a game. Another calculation is determining how much total scores could be increased by pairing bowlers to raise the proximity in the space of ideas. These results are suggestive of how much workplaces might increase productivity by optimally pairing workers based on the proximity of the space of ideas. The second topic of this dissertation is non-cognitive skills such as conscientiousness, self-control and social skills. Conventionally, economists have assumed that measures of cognitive skills such as IQ were sufficient to represent the role of human capital in production. However, a growing body of research suggests that non-cognitive skills are important factors in educational attainment and labor outcomes. Recent research in psychology shows that bilingualism can help strengthen social skills and self-control. In the second essay, joint with Tracy Regan and titled Bilingual Advantage in Non-cognitive Skills, we examine the causal relationship between bilingualism and non-cognitive measures, exploiting a large dataset from Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002). To isolate the causality, we use an indicator for whether either parent was foreign-born as an instrumental variable for bilingualism. We find that raising the degree of speaking a language other than English to parents from none to all of the time can increase a student's percentile in the U.S. national distribution by 36 percentage points for conscientiousness (being well organized and working hard) and by 39 and 50 percentage points for instrumental motivation (academic motivation to achieve external goals such as better job opportunities) and persistence (keeping working even in difficulties). In particular, the bilingual advantage in persistence turns out to be significant only for disadvantaged children (the lowest socioeconomic status quartile) but insignificant for the others. These results suggest that bilingualism can be promoted as a policy tool to reduce inequality and call for further research on the relationship between bilingualism and non-cognitive skills. In the final essay, titled Simple Transformation for Finding a Maximum Weighted Matching in General Digraphs, I propose a novel, simple procedure using an existing efficient algorithm to find an optimal pairing that can produce the maximum output. As shown in the first essay, this algorithm can be useful for the optimal deployment of workforces with the consideration of peer effects. Particularly, the procedure is applicable to cases in which the order in a pair matters. The order can complicate the problem of finding optimal pairings, because a pair can have two orders. To address this ordered pairing problem, I devise a simple transformation of a general directed graph to a proper (undirected) graph. Using the transformed graph, a maximum weighted matching can be found, using any existing polynomial-time algorithm for undirected graphs. By recovering orientations in the found matching, a maximum weighted matching for the original directed graph can be found. I prove the matching from the suggested algorithm is always a maximum weighted matching in the directed graph. This thesis contributes to Labor Economics by adding evidence in newly-rising topics. The first chapter shows evidence of peer effect--learning from competitors--among high-skill workers. The second chapter suggests that bilinguals have an advantage in forming non-cognitive skills. The third chapter proposes an algorithm for finding an optimal pairing to maximize the aggregate productivity in the consideration of the learning effect found in the first chapter. I hope that the findings in the thesis will meaningfully contribute to the developing literature of Labor Economics
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Economics

The dissertation examines catching up in labor productivity across countries and across US states. It also studies the role of financial development and inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) on labor productivity and structural change. Chapter one studies unconditional convergence in labor productivity in cross section of countries. Using disaggregated service sector data for 101 countries, we find unconditional convergence in labor productivity for the service sector. The aggregate service sector yields a large unconditional convergence coefficient of -0.028, while for individual sub-sectors we find a similar presence of unconditional convergence. Since the service sector, as part of the "modern" sector now also faces international competition, unconditional convergence in labor productivity in this sector is not totally unwarranted. Given Rodrik's recent findings of unconditional convergence in labor productivity in the manufacturing sector (2013) and the observed failure of unconditional convergence of per capita GDP, our findings of unconditional convergence in the service sector suggest that we need to look carefully at methodological issues such as "aggregation bias" and the huge divergence of other sectors such as the agricultural sector as a potential solution to this anomaly. In chapter two, we investigate secoral unconditional convergence in labor productivity in the US sates using two series of data sets for the period 1987-1997 and 1998-2013. We have found evidence for catching up in labor productivity in the US states for the majority sectors. There is no evidence for unconditional convergence for the mining sector in 1-digit classification for 1980-1997 and manufacturing and utilities sectors in 2-digit classification for the recent data (1998-2013). The aggregate per capita GDP convergence test shows evidence for convergence for the 1980-1997 data but no evidence for convergence in the recent data consistent with the existing literature. The same factors that were considered responsible for regional convergence in the US, such as migration and falling cost of education, could work in the opposite direction to cause divergence in per capita income in recent years. Chapter three considers the relationship between financial development, inflow of foreign direct investment, labor productivity and structural change variables for 41 countries in Groningen Growth and Development 10-sector database for the period 1971-2012 using panel-VAR methodology. The effect of financial development on total labor productivity and employment share in sectors depend on the income level and geographical locations. We find that financial development has a significantly positive effect on total labor productivity of high income European countries, the United States, and for middle income Latin American counties. We do not find evidence for the positive effect of financial development on labor productivity for low income and middle income countries except for Latin American countries. The result does not show a significant effect of financial development on sectoral employment and value added shares. Inflow of FDI has a statistically significant negative effect on employment share of agriculture in middle income countries, and positive effect on the employment share of the manufacturing sector in middle income Asian countries.

Even with advanced technology and new project management methodologies, construction company leaders continue to face challenges to improve labor productivity. This multiple case study was an exploration of the strategies that construction company leaders use to improve labor productivity in Doha, Qatar. The case population consisted of 6 construction company leaders operating in Doha, Qatar, who successfully identified and implemented strategies to improve labor productivity. The conceptual framework for this study was the expectancy theory. The data collection process included semistructured interviews and company documentation. Data were compiled and organized, disassembled into fragments, reassembled into a sequence of groups, and interpreted for meaning. Methodological triangulation and member checking bolstered the trustworthiness of those interpretations. Five themes emerged from these 6 construction company leaders: exploring, identifying, and evaluating issues affecting labor productivity; applying an appropriate leadership style; motivating the workforce; providing training and development; and implementing effective project management processes. By improving labor productivity, similar construction companies can complete construction projects faster and with lower construction costs. The implications for positive social change include the potential to lower construction costs and enable individuals with lower incomes in Doha, Qatar, to afford houses that they could not previously afford.

Dans le premier chapitre je montre que lorsque les minorités travaillent avec des managers plus biaisés contre leur type, leurs performances sont nettement moins bonnes, et ce sur une série d'indicateurs de performance. En revanche ils sont plus productifs quand ils travail avec des managers non-biaisés. C’est un fait empirique qui révèle une prophétie auto-réalisatrice selon laquelle les managers biaisés rendent les minorités moins productives et cela génère une discrimination statistique dans la politique d'embauche de l'entreprise. Le deuxième chapitre j’explore comment changer la valeur d'un poste vacant en offrant des services de recrutement gratuits aux entreprises a une incidence sur son offre d’emploi. En offrant des services gratuits de recrutement cela augmente fortement le nombre d’offres d'emploi postées sur Pôle emploi et génère une augmentation de création d’emploi en CDI. Ceci suggère que les politiques actives du marché du travail visant le processus de recrutement des entreprises peuvent avoir une valeur ajoutée substantielle sur le marché du travail. Dans le dernier chapitre, il est monté que les attentats de Charlie Hebdo ont provoqué une nette réduction aux efforts de recherche d'emploi des minorités par rapport à ceux issus de la majorité. Les employeurs réduisent également leurs efforts de recherche pour les minorités, mais seulement pour les CDI. Cette baisse est partiellement compensée par une augmentation des démarches des conseillers Pôle emploi après le choc, mais seulement dans les régions où la discrimination latente, mesurée grâce à la part des votes locaux pour le Front national, est relativement faible
In the first chapter I study how the job performance of minorities changes depending on whether they work with managers who are more or less biased against their type. I show that when minorities work with more biased managers they perform significantly worse compared to majority workers on a range of performance indicators. Yet minority performance is higher when working with non-biased managers. We argue that this is evidence of a self-fulfilling prophecy whereby biased managers make minorities less productive and this generates statistical discrimination in the firm’s hiring policy. The second chapter explores how shocking the value of a vacancy through offering free recruiting services to firms affects their demand for labor. Offering free recruitment services leads to large increases in vacancy postings. Furthermore, this translates into significant increases in hires in permanent contracts. These results suggest that active labor market policies directed at generating firm labor demand may have substantial added value in the labor market. In the final chapter it is shown that the the Charlie Hebdo attacks significantly reduced Muslim minority job search effort. Frims also reduced their search for minority candidates, but only for the permanent contracts. This drop is partially offset by an increase in counselor matching effort made for minorities after the shock, but only in areas with low latent levels of discrimination, as measured by the local vote share for the Front National

La population française vieillit et continuera de vieillir dans l'avenir. Les conséquences négatives de cette mutation démographique sur l'économie sont bien connues. Cependant, l'ampleur de ces conséquences dépendra entre autre de l'évolution de la productivité du travail. Afin d'analyser l'évolution future de la productivité du travail en France, cette thèse s'est focalisée sur le rôle des dépenses de santé dans l'économie. En effet, d'un côté, les dépenses de santé, en améliorant la santé de la population, accroissent la productivité du travail. D'un autre côté, elles favorisent le vieillissement de la population en allongeant son espérance de vie. Ainsi, cette thèse vise à vérifier si les gains de productivité générés par les dépenses de santé sont suffisants pour annihiler les effets négatifs du vieillissement de la population. Nous démontrons théoriquement que les dépenses de santé privées génèrent une externalité positive améliorant l'efficacité du travail et par voie de conséquence la productivité du travail (Chapitre I). Cependant, nos résultats empiriques soulignent que cet effet positif n'est pas significatif dès lors que nous considérons les dépenses de santé qui restent à la charge des patients (Chapitre II). Les gains de productivité permis par l'amélioration future de la santé des français sont ensuite mesurés grâce à un modèle de comptabilité générationnelle. Les gains de productivité apparaissent non négligeables mais insuffisants pour annihiler les effets négatifs du vieillissement démographique (Chapitre III). Ce constat est confirmé par les résultats fournis par notre modèle d'équilibre général (Chapitre IV)
French population is aging and this demographic mutation should also occur in the coming decades. The negative economic effects of population aging are well-known but the magnitude of these effects depends partially on the evolution of labor productivity. To determine the evolution of labor productivity in France, this dissertation focuses on the economic effects of health spending. Indeed, on one side, health spending, by improving population’s health status, affect positively labor productivity. On the other side, these health expenditures foster the aging process by extending population longevity. This dissertation aims then to check if productivity gains from health spending are enough to annihilate the negative economic effects of population aging. We demonstrate theoretically that private health spending generate a positive externality affecting positively labor productivity (Chapter I). However, our empirical results underline that this positive effect is limited when we consider the out-of-pocket expenditure on health (Chapter II). Thereafter, we assess the productivity gains resulting from the health status enhancement of French population by using a generational accounting model. It appears that the productivity gains should be significant but not enough to annihilate the negative economic effects of population aging (Chapter III). The simulation outcomes provided by our applied general equilibrium model confirm this result (Chapter IV)

The rise of earnings inequality in the United States has garnered attention in both the political and academic spheres. Recently progressive politicians have pointed towards the divergence of wages and labor productivity as a source of this inequality. known as the productivity-pay gap as a source of the rise in inequality. This paper analyzes that divergence with a regression model that evaluates the change in compensation that is attributable to increases in productivity. Results were somewhat surprising with productivity accounting for a larger portion of the growth in wages for the period after 1972 when the divergence in the two growth rates began than in the time between 1948 and 1972 when they were said to grow together. Additionally, results showed more wage growth was attributable to increases in productivity in goods producing sectors like manufacturing, utilities, and construction than financial intermediation in the services sector. However standard errors across our model were relatively large making it difficult to say with certainty the size of effects observed. Future research should seek to better define productivity in the service sector to determine whether other factors like education, occupation or area of residence affect the level of wage growth attributable to compensation.

En esta tesis doctoral, he explorado el rol de las características no observados de los recursos humanos en la definición de la productividad organizacional. La literatura económica ha establecido que existen diferenciales de productividad significativos que no son atribuibles a factores de producción tradicionales como son el capital y la mano de obra. Así, yo estudio la conexión entre productividad organizacional y capacidad gerencial u otros elementos intangibles en el ámbito laboral, tales como la motivación, en los sectores privado y sin fines de lucro. Utilizo una combinación de análisis de datos longitudinales y metodologías experimentales. En el Capítulo 1 utilizo un panel de datos empresa-empleado que permiten analizar la relación entre la calidad del director (CEO) y la productividad de la empresa en el sector privado. En este capítulo tomo como referencia la literatura que utiliza los cambios de empresa de los CEOs para medir su calidad. Esta metodología excluye la posibilidad de que haya complementariedades entre CEO y empresa que afectan la productividad. El aspecto novedoso es que tomo en cuenta el tiempo previo a que el CEO asuma el rol de liderazgo gerencial, a fin de poder evitar errores de medida que podrían surgir de la selección inherente en la movilidad de los CEOs. Encuentro que una desviación estándar en el incremento de la calidad del CEO se traduce en un incremento del 5% en la productividad de la empresa. Cabe mencionar que los resultados econométricos alcanzados resaltan la importancia de estudiar en mayor profundidad el proceso de compatibilidad entre CEO y empresa, así como su impacto en la productividad. En el Capítulo 2, uso las conclusiones alcanzadas en el capítulo anterior como motivación para un modelo de asignación entre el CEO y la empresa, en el cual éstos son parte de una función productiva indivisible. Este modelo permite la existencia de (i) movilidad endógena de CEOs basada en la realización de compatibilidad de ingresos realizados y (ii) complementariedades irrestrictas entre CEOs y empresas que impactan en los resultados de la empresa. Utilizo un modelo mixto finito con clases discretas de empresas y CEOS de tipo latente. La compatibilidad entre el tipo de CEO y el tipo de empresa produce una distribución diferente de realizaciones de ingresos que incluyen las complementariedades CEO-empresa. Encuentro que existe un significativo impacto de complementariedades CEO- empresa en la producción. A través de un ejercicio contra-factual, en el cual aleatoriamente re-asigno CEOs a empresas, encuentro que existen complementariedades entre el CEO y la empresa, y que éstas juegan un rol determinante en la productividad (2/3% de diferencia respecto al promedio) de la misma. En el Capítulo 3, estudio el impacto que genera la introducción de incentivos no financieros en el comportamiento prosocial de los trabajadores en el sector sin fines de lucro. Este proyecto incluye un experimento de laboratorio finalizado y un experimento de campo proyectado con una ONG internacional de envergadura. En el experimento de laboratorio, que describo en detalle en esta disertación, introduzco en forma aleatoria seis diferentes incentivos no financieros, en una tarea de trabajo real. Los voluntarios son conscientes de que el beneficio de esta tarea se destina a una ONG de renombre. Cada incentivo no financiero busca complementar un tipo específico de motivación intrínseca. Tras identificar cual incentivo no financiero le fue asignado, cada persona decide (i) participar o no como voluntario y (ii) cuanto tiempo donar a la ONG. Encuentro que la probabilidad de contribuir como voluntario es mayor cuando a la persona le es asignado el incentivo de su preferencia mayor (compatibilidad exacta). Asimismo, el tiempo donado es mayor cuando existe una compatibilidad exacta entre incentivos y motivaciones. Los resultados sugieren que los incentivos que apuntan a la motivación relacionada con la identificación con la causa son los más efectivos para aumentar la productividad., mientras que aquellos relacionados con la percepción tangible (monetaria) de una recompensa son menos efectivos.
In this dissertation, I explore the role of unobserved labor-related inputs in determining organizational productivity. It is well-established in the economics literature that there are significant productivity differentials across organizations which are not attributable to traditional production factors such as capital or labor force. I study the connection between organizational productivity and management quality and intangible labor inputs, such as motivation and information, in private and nonprofit sectors. I use a combination of panel data analysis and experimental methodologies. In Chapter 1, I use a matched employer-employee longitudinal data set to analyze the relationship between CEO quality and firm productivity in the private sector. In this chapter, I build on existing literature which uses CEO job switches across different firms to measure their quality. This implies the assumption that CEO and firm productivity contributions are perfectly separable, and that there is a universal ranking of CEOs. In other words, this approach precludes systematic CEO-firm match complementarities in revenue productivity. The novelty of my approach is that I use the time period before the CEO has assumed the lead managerial role so as to avoid the potentially confounding effects arising from selection in CEOs mobility. I find that a one standard deviation increase in CEO quality translates into a 5% increase in firm productivity. Importantly, the econometric findings point to the importance of further studying the CEO-firm match process and its productivity impact. In Chapter 2, I take the findings in the previous chapter to motivate a matching model in which CEO and firm are part of a non-separable joint production function. This model allows for (i) endogenous CEO mobility based on match revenue realizations and (ii) unrestricted CEO-firm match complementarities to impact firm’s outcomes. I use a finite mixture model with discrete firm classes and latent CEO types. The match between a CEO type and firm class produces a different set of revenue realizations, which embed the match complementarities. I find there is a significant impact of CEO-firm complementarities in production. In a counterfactual exercise, in which I randomly assign CEOs to firms, I find that complementarities between CEO and firm play an important role in determining firm productivity. On average, 2-3% of the firm productivity is accounted by those complementarities. In Chapter 3, I study the impact of introducing non-financial incentives on prosocial behavior in the nonprofit sector. This project includes a finished lab experiment and a projected field experiment with a large international NGO. In the lab experiment, which I describe in detail in this dissertation, I randomize the introduction of six non-financial incentives in a real effort task. Volunteers know that the proceeds of this task revert to a well-known nonprofit. Each non-financial incentive intends to match a specific type of intrinsic motivation. After knowing which non-financial incentive was assigned to them, subjects decide (i) whether to participate as a volunteer and (ii) how much time to donate. I find that the likelihood to contribute as a volunteer is greater when the subject is assigned to the incentive she most prefers (exact matching). Moreover, time donated is also greater under exact matching between incentives and motivations. Results suggest that incentives targeting motivation related to identification with the cause are the most effective in increasing productivity, whereas those concerning perceived tangible (monetary) rewards are less effective.

The objective of this paper is to analyze methods of measurement of labor productivity and introduce them to real business. The object of this paper is to investigate methods of measuring performance. The subject of this paper is the process of implementing methods to increase productivity. Methods (procedures) of the study. Pattern during the writing of this work was used by scientists articles information about the measurement and implementation of systems productivity. Recommendations for the use of this work. Since this work was written with the use of different methods and examples, not all of them before writing the work was known to me, I want to present a certain part to improve the productivity of some companies in my country.

This thesis consists of three chapters. Chapter 1 aims to understand how performance-based ranking affect productivity of workers. While providing such ranking may induce workers to increase effort because of status concerns, such information may also demotivate them or make them wary of outperforming peers. This chapter disentangles the effects of demotivation, social conformity, and status associated with ranking. I implement a randomized experiment at a Bangladeshi sweater factory that pays employees on piece rates. Treated workers receive monthly information on their relative performance either in private or in public. A simple theoretical framework shows that intrinsic status concerns induce Private Treatment workers to increase or decrease effort depending on the feedback they receive from the intervention. Workers in Public Treatment respond similarly but face two additional incentives - social status (positive effect) and social conformity (negative effect). Empirical evidence shows that Private Treatment workers increased (decreased) effort upon receiving positive (negative) feedback. Public ranking led to lower net effort relative to Private Treatment because of a strong preference not to outperform friends. The negative effects from demotivation and social conformity may explain why the existing literature finds mixed evidence of impact of ranking workers. In Chapter 2, we look at how firing of workers in an organization affect the productivity of the surviving co-workers. We take advantage of detailed individual-level production records from, and extensive fieldwork conducted at, a large Bangladeshi sweater factory before, during, and after several episodes of labour unrest that eventually led the management to fire approximately 25 percent of the labour force on the relevant production floor. Exploiting across-worker variation in exposure to colleagues' terminations, we document a negative impact of the firings on productivity of surviving workers. Fired co-workers' spatial proximity drives the results. Additional evidence rules out a number of competing mechanisms such as subsequent targeted punishments from management, loss of productive peers, or attention diverted to help recently hired and inexperienced co-workers. We argue that the effects are likely driven by workers' feelings of loss or anger towards the management. Chapter 3 studies the relationship between external shocks, such as political strikes and labour unrest, and productivity in the ready-made garment sector in Bangladesh. Using data from 33 ready-made garment factories in Bangladesh and adopting an event-study approach, we document very little change in productivity or worker absenteeism during political strikes lasting two days or less. Productivity falls when strikes last five days or more. The main channel for such fall appears to be supply-chain disruptions rather than worker absenteeism. However, absenteeism and quality defect rates increase immediately during labour unrest, resulting in a decrease in output. As a benchmark comparison, we show that the drop in productivity from sustained strikes or labour unrest is equivalent to a fall in productivity due to an increase of about 7 degrees centigrade in temperature.

The importance of Agricultural Supply Response (ASR) modelling cannot be over emphasised. Knowledge of its size provides a roadmap for designing a tailored agricultural policy based on suppliers’ responses to price and non-price incentives. In spite of its policy importance, limited amount of studies exist for Ghana. This study seeks to fill the gap and also sheds some light on how future agricultural policies in Ghana should be formulated. This study is conducted on a regional (ecological) group basis and at a crop-level. Apart from price and non-price factors, we have also accounted for technical inefficiencies, a problem that impedes the growth of agricultural production in Ghana. We employed the duality modelling technique (based on the profit function). This technique provides a more intuitive way of modelling and interpreting ASRs. We used the fourth wave of the Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS4), a cross-sectional dataset collected between 1998 and 1999. The analysis is based on six crops, grouped into industrial (cocoa and groundnut), food (maize, rice and cowpea) and staple (sorghum and millet combined and termed migso in the study). A sensitivity analysis is carried out to check the robustness of results. We found high national and ecological technical inefficiency scores. Nationally, technical inefficiency is in the neighbourhood of 53%. At the ecological levels, groundnut (industrial crop) farmers in the Coastal zone recording the highest inefficiency (83%) with the least inefficiency score coming from cowpea (food) farmers in the Savannah zone (30%). In a related outcome we found that technical inefficiency estimates and patterns are sensitive to the structure and composition of the dataset. Our supply elasticities support claims that farmers in Ghana will respond to both market (price) and non-price incentives. In terms of price incentives we found that, with or without technical inefficiency, farmers of food crops in the Coastal zone will respond the most to changes to outputs prices. Farmers in the Savannah zone for all crops but staples will be the least to respond to output price change. We found, however, that with production inefficiency accounted for, supply responses were relatively lower, reinforcing the arguments that earlier supply response estimates from other studies could have been inaccurately estimated especially where analysis failed to account for non-price factors. Moreover, the study estimates revealed that farmers in Ghana are would record a larger output supply responses to changes in inputs prices than output prices. Besides price, the study also found that all four non-price incentives - plot size, animal capital, family labour and education of household head - are important to the development of an effective agricultural policy regardless of whether technical inefficiency is accounted for or not. In some cases, output supply responses from non-prices factors outweighed price elasticities, again supporting the argument that ASR estimates are likely to be biased if non-price factors are omitted. These findings provide two policy signposts for the design of Ghana’s future agricultural policies. Firstly, the policy - aimed at increasing output and/or improving the sector’s competitiveness - must identify and address technical inefficiencies among smallholder agricultural farmers. Failure to address such inefficiencies would lead to suboptimal performance - operating on a lower production frontier. Secondly, the differences in crop-level ecological supply elasticities support regional-based agricultural policies rather than a one-size-fits all centralised agricultural policy.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2008.
Title from first page of PDF file (viewed June 12, 2008). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This paper employs a spatial Durbin model for analyzing the impact of human capital on regional productivity using for 198 NUTS-2 European regions for the sample period from 1995 to 2004. The study provides evidence for the existence of spatial externalities and interactions of the sort as emphasized by new growth theory. To interpret results meaningfully, we calculate summary measures that account for the simultaneous feedback nature of the underlying model. By sampling from the parameter distribution we present measures of dispersion, revealing that it is relative regional advantages in human capital that matter most for productivity growth. (authors' abstract)

This thesis explores the day-to-day realities for public high school counselors inside their schools. The national average student-to-counselor ratio in public high schools in the U.S. is 482:1. This is almost double the recommended counselor caseload by the American School Counselor Association, which recommends 250 students per counselor. However, counselors’ inflated caseloads are not the only reason why counselors are overworked. Using a year’s worth of ethnographic research, I analyze the bureaucratic and care labor practices of counselors and the ways in which their labor exploitation reflects years of neoliberal discourse influencing the functioning of public education. This neoliberalization of public education not only intensifies the bureaucratic labor that counselors must do on a daily basis, but also makes counselors perceive their frequent care labor as “unproductive.” Schools exploit counselors’ labor by depending on their care labor, while also relying on the pressure that counselors put on themselves to continue completing the bureaucratic labor demanded of them.

This study considers the labor organization of a group of northern Kenyan pastoralists. Since 1960, the Samburu have experienced substantial cattle loss and land circumscription and the work focuses both on herding and non-herding labor responses to a changing regional economy. The viability of Samburu pastoralism rests on specific labor forms which permit intensified production and economic diversification.
Based on twenty-four months of fieldwork, primarily during the 1983-84 drought, the study emphasizes the interplay between the social and technical organization of labor. Social institutions of descent and age guide natural resource and delineate work roles, while encouraging the varied forms of cooperation which greatly extend the family workforce. The diversity of technical strategies, which are strongly shaped by cultural preferences, contrasts with the paucity of production materials.
Several key findings have applicability to a range of pastoral locales, particularly proof of the positive relationship between labor input and animal output and of the higher efficiency of labor in larger versus smaller-scale herding units only under stable production conditions. Further, the quantitative material on dry season versus drought labor use as well as evidence for differential livestock survival rates represent unique accounts in themselves.
Beyond insights into pastoralism, however, the analysis is structured so as to contribute to several important issues in small-scale rural production. The accounts of the interconnection of technology and social forms and of the integration of "on-farm" and "off-farm" enterprise have implications for defining the scope of any labor investigation. The discussions of the terms "labor" and "technology" pose wider questions of the content of such basic concepts. Finally, the methodological discourse on labor measurement should assist those similarly trying to distinguish between "use" and "demand" in predominantly noncapitalist societies.

One of the main underlying sources of economic growth is productivity. An economy can grow by either accumulation of its inputs, namely labour and capital, or improvements in productivity. The latter implies that more can be produced with the same amount of inputs, generating a greater amount of income that can be distributed among the economy's population. With rising per capita incomes, an economy can provide higher living standards and well-being. This thesis analyses variations in economic and productivity trends among the states of Australia and the USA. It investigates whether disparities in GSP per capita, labour and multifactor productivity among the states have declined (converged) or widened (diverged), during this period. The analysis is undertaken at a national level as well as for specific industries to identify the sectoral sources of the various trends. Further, in an interstate analysis the performance of individual states is examined to identify those that may have had a major role in accounting for the observed trends. The analysis employs both cross - section and time - series techniques. Contrary to earlier studies, this thesis finds that lately the interstate dispersion of per capita incomes and productivity has stopped decreasing. In Australia, once the Mining sector (which is a special case) is excluded from the analysis, the levels of GSP per capita and labour productivity in the various states are found to have neither converged nor diverged. Convergence trends among the US states observed prior to the 1990s have not only slowed down but even reversed into divergence. Divergence in labour productivity started during the 1980s in the service industries and was followed by the Manufacturing sector (and here in particular by the Electronic and Electrical Equipment industry) during the 1990s. There appears to be a belt of states in the West (and a few states in the North-East) which started off relatively poorly but managed to catch-up with the richer states due to an above average growth performance in labour productivity and multi factor productivity. Some of these states did not only manage to catch-up with richer ones but continued to surge ahead, causing the observed increase in the interstate dispersion in recent years. Policy makers, especially those in the states that are falling behind need to develop policies that will lead to an increase in the rate of productivity growth. In order to achieve this they must foster industries, which are conducive to higher growth rates and adopt policies that would increase the productivity of the labour force. These policies will need to create an environment in which productivity enhancing innovation can be sustained. States need to engage in research and development activities to ensure the invention and the adoption of new technologies.

One of the main underlying sources of economic growth is productivity. An economy can grow by either accumulation of its inputs, namely labour and capital, or improvements in productivity. The latter implies that more can be produced with the same amount of inputs, generating a greater amount of income that can be distributed among the economy's population. With rising per capita incomes, an economy can provide higher living standards and well-being. This thesis analyses variations in economic and productivity trends among the states of Australia and the USA. It investigates whether disparities in GSP per capita, labour and multifactor productivity among the states have declined (converged) or widened (diverged), during this period. The analysis is undertaken at a national level as well as for specific industries to identify the sectoral sources of the various trends. Further, in an interstate analysis the performance of individual states is examined to identify those that may have had a major role in accounting for the observed trends. The analysis employs both cross - section and time - series techniques. Contrary to earlier studies, this thesis finds that lately the interstate dispersion of per capita incomes and productivity has stopped decreasing. In Australia, once the Mining sector (which is a special case) is excluded from the analysis, the levels of GSP per capita and labour productivity in the various states are found to have neither converged nor diverged. Convergence trends among the US states observed prior to the 1990s have not only slowed down but even reversed into divergence. Divergence in labour productivity started during the 1980s in the service industries and was followed by the Manufacturing sector (and here in particular by the Electronic and Electrical Equipment industry) during the 1990s. There appears to be a belt of states in the West (and a few states in the North-East) which started off relatively poorly but managed to catch-up with the richer states due to an above average growth performance in labour productivity and multi factor productivity. Some of these states did not only manage to catch-up with richer ones but continued to surge ahead, causing the observed increase in the interstate dispersion in recent years. Policy makers, especially those in the states that are falling behind need to develop policies that will lead to an increase in the rate of productivity growth. In order to achieve this they must foster industries, which are conducive to higher growth rates and adopt policies that would increase the productivity of the labour force. These policies will need to create an environment in which productivity enhancing innovation can be sustained. States need to engage in research and development activities to ensure the invention and the adoption of new technologies.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Economics
Full Text

Shiftwork is common in the private sector but not exclusive from the public sector like nursing. In order to secure a continuous operation, and optimization of equipment, businesses introduced shiftwork. The author wanted to test certain hypotheses to better understand the impact of shiftwork. In this research the author first embarked on a theoretical study into shiftwork and its associated problems, which include the impact on productivity, the impact on the employer’s attitude towards the work, the impact on the family life, the impact on social life, the impact on physical health and the psychological effects. Thereafter, an empirical study was conducted to ascertain to what extend shiftwork affects productivity and the life of the employees. The data was then analysed to explain the impact of shiftwork and productivity. Lastly, recommendations were made based on the research.

This study consists of literature research providing background and basic knowledge on layoff-related issues, and analysis of data obtained through a survey of human resources professionals in 30 mid-size Southern California cities. The survey provided information on the layoff experiences of respondents' cities and the current state of affairs pertaining to layoff policies, procedures and perceptions.

Even though unhealthy habits, drinking, smoking and overeating, are among the most expensive burdens for the health system, much research is still needed to understand how individuals form them, how do they correlate between them and what impacts do they have in labor productivity. The first paper in this thesis fills in the gap of un- derstanding whether individuals substitute among habits by exploring the effect that quitting smoking has on obesity. The second paper analyze the impact that the business cycle, that is, unemployment rate and income per capita have on drinking participation and alcohol consumption. To overcome the lack of a true longitudinal panel which would prevent us from obtaining unbiased estimates in these two first papers, we use cohort analysis methodology to control for unobservables, while instrumenting the habit deci- sion and introducing dynamics into the estimation equation. The third paper focuses on the effects of smoking over labor productivity. Here we exploit many outcomes that are potentially correlated with individual labor productivity using a longitudinal panel and instrumenting the smoking decision. The three papers make use of a dataset on US regulations regarding tobacco use, which was self developed from the compilation of the different laws enacted by the states.
Tot i que els hàbits no saludables, com poden ser beure, fumar o menjar en excés, són algunes de les càrregues més cares per al sistema de salut, encara és necessari molt més recerca per entendre com els individus formen els hàbits, com aquestes es correlacionen entre si, i quins efectes tenen per a la productivitat. El primer document busca comprendre si els individus substitueixen uns hàbits per altres, en particular, analitza l'impacte que deixar de fumar té sobre l'obesitat. El segon article analitza l'impacte que té el cicle econòmic, és a dir, la taxa d'atur i l'ingrés per càpita, sobre la decisió de beure i sobre el volum d'alcohol consumit. Per superar la manca d'un veritable panell longitudinal que impedeix obtenir estimacions no esbiaixades, en aquests dos primers articles s'ha utilitzat la metodologia de l'anàlisi de cohortes per a poder controlar d'aquesta manera per a les característiques no observables, en particular les preferencies, al mateix temps que s'ha instrumentat la decisió de l'hàbit i s'ha introduït dinàmica en l'equació d'estimació. El tercer document se centra en els efectes del tabaquisme sobre la productivitat laboral. Aquí s'exploren moltes variables que potencialment estan correlacionades amb la productivitat del treball, utilitzant un panell longitudinal i instrumentant la decisió de fumar. Els tres documents fan servir un conjunt de dades sobre reglaments pel que fa a l'ús del tabac als Estats Units.

Even though unhealthy habits, drinking, smoking and overeating, are among the most expensive burdens for the health system, much research is still needed to understand how individuals form them, how do they correlate between them and what impacts do they have in labor productivity. The first paper in this thesis fills in the gap of un- derstanding whether individuals substitute among habits by exploring the effect that quitting smoking has on obesity. The second paper analyze the impact that the business cycle, that is, unemployment rate and income per capita have on drinking participation and alcohol consumption. To overcome the lack of a true longitudinal panel which would prevent us from obtaining unbiased estimates in these two first papers, we use cohort analysis methodology to control for unobservables, while instrumenting the habit deci- sion and introducing dynamics into the estimation equation. The third paper focuses on the effects of smoking over labor productivity. Here we exploit many outcomes that are potentially correlated with individual labor productivity using a longitudinal panel and instrumenting the smoking decision. The three papers make use of a dataset on US regulations regarding tobacco use, which was self developed from the compilation of the different laws enacted by the states.
Tot i que els hàbits no saludables, com poden ser beure, fumar o menjar en excés, són algunes de les càrregues més cares per al sistema de salut, encara és necessari molt més recerca per entendre com els individus formen els hàbits, com aquestes es correlacionen entre si, i quins efectes tenen per a la productivitat. El primer document busca comprendre si els individus substitueixen uns hàbits per altres, en particular, analitza l'impacte que deixar de fumar té sobre l'obesitat. El segon article analitza l'impacte que té el cicle econòmic, és a dir, la taxa d'atur i l'ingrés per càpita, sobre la decisió de beure i sobre el volum d'alcohol consumit. Per superar la manca d'un veritable panell longitudinal que impedeix obtenir estimacions no esbiaixades, en aquests dos primers articles s'ha utilitzat la metodologia de l'anàlisi de cohortes per a poder controlar d'aquesta manera per a les característiques no observables, en particular les preferencies, al mateix temps que s'ha instrumentat la decisió de l'hàbit i s'ha introduït dinàmica en l'equació d'estimació. El tercer document se centra en els efectes del tabaquisme sobre la productivitat laboral. Aquí s'exploren moltes variables que potencialment estan correlacionades amb la productivitat del treball, utilitzant un panell longitudinal i instrumentant la decisió de fumar. Els tres documents fan servir un conjunt de dades sobre reglaments pel que fa a l'ús del tabac als Estats Units.

Since the recognition of diabetes over 200 years ago, key fundamental breakthroughs have improved our understanding of the disease process and shaped the design of interventions for effective management. Unfortunately, the sky-rocketing increases in the number of persons with diabetes have slowed advances made in this field. Experts project that if current trends continue, one of every three U.S. adults will have diabetes by 2050. In the view of many researchers, the implications of this increase, along with a concomitant rise in diabetic complications, are profound. They indicate that this diabetic trend will result in increasing hospitalizations, disabilities and health care costs, as well as reduced quality of life and workforce productivity.

Understanding the triad of diabetes, hospitalization and work-productivity losses is therefore very important from a health policy perspective. To date, no study has examined the relationship between diabetes, the likelihood of hospitalization and the combined effect on labor force participation. Using a quantitative model and review of literature, this study 1) explores the impact of interventions designed to prevent and treat diabetes, 2) analyzes work-force productivity impacts, such as presenteeism and absenteeism, of diabetes-related acute events and 3) projects the growth of prevalence of diabetes in children 0-17 years.

The findings from this research are manifold: 1) For persons with diabetes, early enrolment in a chronic disease management intervention—before the development comorbidities that can aggravate the disease state—can delay the occurrence of any acute event necessitating hospitalization, emergency room visits and observations. 2) Diabetes results in significant productivity losses. In the cohort assessed, the productivity loss within a one-year period was about $2 million and approximately 20,000 lost workdays. Additional research is needed to elucidate the best approach to reduce presenteeism caused by diabetes. 3) By 2030 the number of children with diabetes will almost double the current children with diabetes population. Minority children will continue to bear a larger burden of the diabetes epidemic. The implications of this overall increase are enormous, especially with regard to more people having and managing diabetes for most of their lives.

This paper analyzes the impact on the productivity of the U. S. interstate trucking industry of changes in the regulatory climate in 1980. Two methods of analysis are used; Total Factor Productivity (TFP) and Neo-Classical Cost Function analysis. The industry's performance in 1978 is compared to the performance in 1982. Results of the Total Factor Productivity analysis indicate the TFP of the industry in 1982, after deregulation, was lower than that of 1978. However drawing conclusions from this result would be unfounded. TFP analysis assumes constant returns to scale. Cost Function analyses find that the U. S. trucking industry exhibits significant economies of scale. As the trucking industry does not have constant returns to scale, TFP cannot be used to draw conclusions about its economic performance. The results of the Cost Function analyses are dependent on which model is chosen. The variable measuring the effect of deregulation is either positive or negative depending on exactly what other variables are included in the model. In none of the initial models is this variable found to be significantly different from zero. After deleting six data points which produce extreme residuals and correspond to questionable observations, this variable is found to be positive and significant, indicating increased costs in 1982.
Business, Sauder School of
Graduate

This study employs industry-level panel data to estimate the effects of import competition on the labor productivity of Swedish manufacturing during 1998–2008 and to determine how this relationship is affected by the price-cost margin. The study results show that the import competition effect on labor productivity is positive, whereas the labor productivity of firms with higher price-cost margin is relatively less affected by import competition. Specifically, imports from high-income countries have significant positive effects on labor productivity, whereas those from middle-income countries have weak negative effects. No explicit relationship was found in the case of low-income countries. Domestic industries with low price-cost margin and industries confronted with imports from mainly high-income countries raise their labor productivity to deal with unexpected higher imports in the short term.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007.
The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on February 27, 2008) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

An increase in the global competitiveness has forced manufacturing organisations to re-look their facility from a labour productivity standpoint. Leveraging a manufacturing operation into a competitive avantage must at all times support the organisation’s objective. It is therefore critical that the operation reviews its strategy so that it fulfils the ever changing needs in the market. Purpose – The main objective of this research is to identify the critical success factors to improve direct labour efficiency within Johnson Controls Automotive South Africa (Pty) Ltd (JCI). Design/methodology/approach – A combination of a comprehensive literature review and visits to the Uitenhage plant and head office were employed in the study. JCI practices were observed to highlight the level of direct labour productivity. This was followed by interviewing relevant and key personel who had an involvement in achieving direct labour productivity in the plant. A questionnaire-based research approach was adopted for this purpose and a total of 83 valid survey responses were received from staff in the Uitenhage plant, together with head office staff who directly supported the plant. The questionnaire was designed to identify and test perceptions of employees, regarding the factors of production, identified as sub variables. The research aim was to determine the most practical and effective strategies to improve direct labour productivity. Results were analysed and interpreted after which recommendations were formulated. Findings – Several critical success factors identified as sub variables were tested to understand their impact on direct labour productivity. Empirical results showed that organisational culture, leadership culture, employee engagement, communication and skills, development and training, had a significant effect on direct labour productivity. Respective ratings of these elements were discussed with the focus of improving this going forward. Research limitations/implications – Continued scepticim within JCI about the benefits of direct labour productivity to their business is one of the fundamental limitations this research faces. Originality/value – The novelty of the research project stems from the realization of key factors contributing to the improvement of direct labour productivity within the JCI enviroment. The results would provide JCI with indicators and guidelines for a successful implementation of direct labour productivity initiatives in the Uitenhage plant.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2005.
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 158-160). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Mtech(Business Administration)--Cape Technikon, Cape Town, 2001
The researcher identified an absenteeism problem at the Cape Technikon Library and sees the effect of it on a daily basis. It is a costly and disruptive problem and places unnecessary pressure on staff that are at work. From the outset, companies might not realise the cost of absenteeism until they actually measure it. Absenteeism of other staff members create various problems such as low morale, increased stress, break in team work, etc. between the staff that are at work. To reduce the absenteeism rate, certain measures and control systems should be put in place. Absenteeism can either be addressed by putting a reward system in place or making use of punishment contingencies, or using a combination of both. If staff members see that other staff members get away with excessive absenteeism, they will soon follow. Within the context of the Cape Technikon Library, a culture of absenteeism has been created and it is not easy to break that culture. This study considered possible reasons for the absenteeism as well as possible solutions. To improve productivity and cost-effectiveness, the Gross Absence Rate (GAR) should be less than 3% (Van der Merwe: 1988:25). According to Van der Merwe (1988:25) an absence rate of 10% is extremely serious and any absence rate of more than 5% should be regarded as an indicator of a situation needing further investigation. An absence rate of less than 3% can be regarded as satisfactory, although capable of furtherimprovement. On some days the absenteeism rate at the Cape Technikon Library is approximately 12%.

Economics
Ph.D.
This dissertation consists of three essays exploring the labor market in Major League Baseball (MLB), as well as the negotiation environment for arbitration eligible players. Chapter 1 will show that the distribution of individual labor productivity has a significant effect on overall firm output. Results indicate that a firm with heterogeneous workers should consider not only the sum of individual contributions, but also how individual contributions are allocated, as increased concentration reduces overall output. Traditionally, salary dispersion acts as a proxy for ability dispersion. Past literature indicates that workers respond to disparity, though the literature is conflicting as to the direction of this response. In all cases, however, using salary as a proxy for worker production over-simplifies the firm's decision-making process. This chapter uses data from MLB to measure productivity concentration directly, independent of wage concentration. If workers act as complements to one another then the concentration of productivity will influence overall output in a way that is unrelated to the distribution of salaries. This analysis allows for workers’ behavioral response to wage, and the productivity effects of heterogeneous individual production levels, to be evaluated separately. The analysis could extend to any industry in which workers act as a team contributing a portion of a final product. These findings are particularly useful for industries, like MLB, in which varying degrees of monopsonistic power make wage a poor proxy for productivity.\\ Chapter 2 discusses Final Offer Interest Arbitration (FOA), a bargaining mechanism designed to promote private negotiation and, when necessary, resolve a negotiation impasse without a work stoppage. If parties cannot settle on mutually acceptable terms, they bring their proposed terms to an arbitrator. The arbitrator then rules in favor of one party. In a Final Offer system, the winning party's terms become the binding terms of the agreement. In order for FOA to be an effective mechanism, it should promote bargaining, meaning it is used relatively infrequently and, when used, its outcomes should resemble privately negotiated terms. Traditionally, both parties are given equal power to select the arbitrator who will hear the case. This veto power during the selection process should weed out any calculable or predicable favoring of one party over another, so an FOA system should not yield significantly different settlements from those that do not go to arbitration and are instead privately negotiated. This chapter explores the use of FOA in Major League Baseball. Different players face arbitration eligibility at points during their career, allowing for a side-by-side view of settlements with and without an FOA mechanism. Results indicate that FOA has succeeded in promoting bargaining, but that a bias against players lingers even as uncertainty dwindles. Chapter 3 is meant to complement chapter 2 by further exploring FOA. Arbitrators must maintain a degree of unpredictability in order to promote private negotiation. However, they also must be predictable enough that parties expect a "high-quality" ruling, meaning the outcome falls within a range that parties believe reflects privately negotiated decisions. I use data from Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC) to explore the way teams learn from past decisions to reduce uncertainty surrounding arbitrator decisions.
Temple University--Theses

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science, Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering, 2009.
Includes bibliographical references.

Master of Science
Department of Agricultural Economics
Michael Langemeier
The objectives of this thesis are to examine the labor requirements of Kansas crop and livestock enterprises and farms and the connection between labor efficiency and productivity, and other important farm characteristics including farm size and type. The derived labor requirements are compared to current KFMA labor requirements. Enterprise summary reports and a five year whole-farm panel data set from 1,016 Kansas Farm Management Association (KFMA) farms are used in the analysis. Whole-farm labor requirements are computed with and without an adjustment for managerial and overhead cost. Individual regressions will be estimated to determine the effects that farm size, type, region and profit margin have on labor requirements. The estimation results suggest that many of the current labor requirements still in use are accurate. However, there are enterprises with labor requirements that need updating. When the newly estimated requirements are compared to the previous KFMA requirements, 14 enterprises have lower labor requirements. Irrigated alfalfa showed the greatest decrease in labor required when compared to the previous standard, decreasing from 3.85 hrs/acre to 1.70 hrs/acre. Regression estimation results indicated that whole farm labor standards that were corrected for un-allocated overhead and managerial costs appear to be a more accurate representation of farm labor requirements.

Thesis (Honors)--Ohio State University, 2007.
Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages: contains 40 p.; also includes graphics and a map. Includes bibliographical references (p. 30-32). Available online via Ohio State University's Knowledge Bank.

The construction sector is one of the most important industries for the economy in Sweden. Between 2010 to November of 2020, there has been an increase in employment in the construction industry by 35.4 percent. In 2019 the Swedish construction sector was valued at EUR 53.3 billion, where the construction sub-sector makes up 47.6 percent (European Construction Sector Observatory - Country profile Sweden, 2020).  The construction industry is a fundamental part of society, whereas labor productivity, which represents the quantity of work performed per hour (Park 2006), is a vital element in the process of construction. Gunduz et al. (2020) state that labor consumes a significant amount of cost in construction projects, thus labor productivity is a determinator of cost optimization i.e., the process of making something as good or effective as possible (Cambridge Online Dictionary, n.d.). The benefit of productivity is seen as reduced construction time and cost (Fox, Marsh & Cockerham, 2010). Moreover, a lack of effective management activity towards construction resources can potentially decrease labor productivity. Thus, the familiarity of project managers with labor productivity factors is of major importance (Shehata & El-Gohary, 2011) and contributes to project success (Gunduz & Abu-Hijleh, 2020).

碩士
國立臺北大學
經濟學系
99
This paper studies the relationship between labor market tightness and average labor productivity. In our study, labor market tightness is characterized by the ratio of job openings to the applicants. Our sample includes 18 industries in Taiwan over the period of 2003 to 2010. We employ GMM to estimate a dynamic fixed effect model to discuss the impact of labor market tightness on average labor productivity. The empirical result obtained from this study shows that the ratio is negatively related to the averagae labor productivity. When the ratio is lower, more workers are competing for one job. Firms with vacancies will pick up the most productive workers from the job seekers. As a result, average labor productivity will be enhanced.