The Effect of Learning by Hiring on Productivity

This work studies the phenomenon of inter- rm labor mobility as potential channel of knowledge transfer. Using data from the Danish employer-employee register, covering the period 1995-2005, it investigates how the knowledge embed- ded into recruited workers, coming from other rms, contributes to the process of knowledge diusion and boosts rms productivity. Speci cally, estimating both parametric (Cobb-Douglas) and semi-parametric production functions (Olley and Pakes, 1996; Levinsohn and Petrin, 2003), the impact of recruited technicians and highly educated workers on total factor productivity at the rm level is found to be signi cantly positive. A matching analysis, which allows for contin- uous treatment eect evaluation (Hirano and Imbens, 2004), corroborates this nding.