Two decades ago, McKinsey advanced the idea that large U.S. companies are engaged in a “war for talent” and that to remain competitive they need to make a strategic effort to attract, retain, and develop the highest-performing executives. To understand the contribution of the human resources...

Extant literature documents a relationship between human resource management (HRM) practices and performance, but the mechanisms underlying this relationship are still not well understood. We develop a theoretical framework of the HRM-performance relationship fusing an employment systems...

Collaboration between individuals in firms has important implications for the development of relational and human capital and is thus of critical concern to individuals and firms alike. In knowledge-intensive contexts where collaborations are formed to deliver services to clients, collaboration...

We propose a theory that emphasizes the role of managers for the production and allocation of human capital in firms. Managers invest time to train junior employees, and acquire information about the juniors' abilities that is valuable for job assignments. This dual role of managers matters...

This paper tackles some issues in personnel economics using the career profiles of British naval officers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. We ask how promotions, payouts, positions, and peers affect worker retention. Random variation in task assignments and job promotions allows us...