Using two matched plant level skills and productivity datasets for UK manufacturing we document that (i) more … and (ii) in an accounting sense the skills gap between the firms in the top and bottom deciles of the TFP distribution … productive firms hire more skilled workers: in 2000, plants at the top decile of the TFP distribution (controlling for their four …

We study the relation between workers' skill dispersion and firm productivity using a unique dataset of Italian … manufacturing firms from the early eighties to the late nineties with individual records on all their workers. Our measure of skill … production function that depends on the skill composition show that a firm's productivity is positively related to skill …

the local labor market and ultimately increased the likelihood that firms in these provinces had directors with foreign … experience in comparison to firms with a similarly high demand for these skills elsewhere. We document that hiring directors with …We study the impact of directors with foreign experience on firms in emerging markets. To establish causality, we use a …

We use a comprehensive dataset of French manufacturing firms to study their internal organization. We first divide the … reorganization, through changes in layers, is key to understand how firms expand and contract. For example, we find that firms that … expand substantially add layers and pay lower average wages in all pre-existing layers. In contrast, firms that expand little …

temporary workers' effort and firms' temp-to-perm conversion rates decrease when that gap increases. We test this implication by … means of a panel of Spanish manufacturing firms from 1991 to 2005, using as natural experiments some labour market reforms … rates, which in turn increased firms' TFP, and conversely for reforms that increased the gap. …

This paper evaluates the impact of the widespread use of fixed-term contracts in Spain on firms' TFP, via its effect on … positively on their perception (for given level of effort) about firms' willingness to convert fixed-term contracts into … rates increase firm's productivity while high shares of temporary contracts decrease it. Both effects are quantitatively …

on shop-floor skills. After the Second World War, however, British firms made an unsuccessful move towards standardized … mass production. Since shop-floor skills were neglected, British firms were left in a weak position to take advantage of … overall production strategy and productivity trends. In the United States a strategy of standardized mass production led to …

This paper provides three perspectives on long-run growth rates of labor productivity (LP) and of multi …-factor productivity (MFP) for the U. S. economy. It extracts statistical growth trends for labor productivity from quarterly data for the …

network in firm performance. We develop a simple model where firms can outsource tasks and search for suppliers in different … locations. Low search and outsourcing costs lead firms to search more and find better suppliers. This in turn drives down the … Japan which lowered the cost of passenger travel but left shipping costs unchanged. Using an exhaustive dataset on firms …