New Organizational Practices and Working Conditions : Evidence from France in the 1990’s

We investigate the impact of innovative work practices on working conditions. We use a unique French dataset providing information on individual workers for year 1998. New work practices which play a key role in the success of the new economy, include job rotation and the use of quality norms. Working conditions are captured by occupational injuries as well as indicators of mental strain. Using Rubin's causal model, we show that, even after controlling for employee and job characteristics and correcting for sample selection bias, workers involved in the new work practices still face working conditions that are significantly worse than those of non innovative workers.