In this paper we study job design. Will an organization plan precisely how the job is to be done ex ante, or ask workers to determine the process as they go? We first model this decision and predict complementarity between these job attributes: multitasking, discretion, skills, and...

There is much we do not know and cannot know about the socioeconomic impacts of intelligent machines. The impacts will be driven by business strategies that differ by sector and country. “Good jobs” strategies are possible. It is important to identify and strengthen the factors, including...

I examine the impact of M&As on employment dynamics and the composition of human capital in target firms. Using detailed employer-employee administrative data linked with hand-collected information on M&A activity in Brazil, I find that M&As are associated with a significant decline in...

Around the turn of the century, China experienced perhaps the largest labor restructuring program in the world. This paper uses a new data set of Chinese industrial enterprises to examine what leads to downsizing, and tries to understand the effects of labor downsizing on firms' technical...

Studies of public administration question more and more the idea of convergence toward a single model of reform and many challenge the existence of a coherent set of policies and practices subsumed under the label New Public Management. There does exist, however, a growing consensus that reform...