This paper analyses the link between technological product and processes innovations and expectations about future employment for different types of labour in manufacturing. The empirical model allows for endogeneity of the firm's innovation decision in the labour demand equations. The system of...

This paper analyzes whether technological change improves equality of labor market opportunities by decreasing returns to parental background. We find that in Germany during the 1990s, computerization improved the access to technologyadopting occupations for workers with low-educated parents,...

This paper investigates whether and in what sense the west German wage structure has been 'rigid' in the 1990s. To test the hypothesis that a rigid wage structure has been responsible for rising low-skilled unemployment, I propose a methodology which makes less restrictive identifying...

We develop an assignment model of automation. Each of a continuum of tasks of variable complexity is assigned to either capital or one of a continuum of labor skills. We characterize conditions for interior automation, whereby tasks of intermediate complexity are assigned to capital. Interior...

An establishment can improve its productivity by hiring workers from more productive establishments. Then, how important is worker reallocation for aggregate productivity growth? To study this question, I develop a general equilibrium model where knowledge transmits as workers reallocate from...

Between 1993 and 1995, the majority of German firms in services introduced new organizational practices (OC), in particular total quality management systems, certified ISO 9000, lean administration, flatter hierarchies, delegation of authority and ICT-enabled organizational changes). This paper...