Although early human capital theory recognized the relevance of workers’ experience, its focus was on education and formal training. Recent studies find that much of the performance of newly hired workers is driven by learning by doing or learning from peers or supervisors in the workplace....

This paper focuses on the question of whether or not a reduction of the knowledge barrier is good for welfare. Based on a dynamic monopoly setting with simultaneous investment decisions in process as well as in product Research & Development (R&D), we show that a reduction of the knowledge...

In this paper, the author reflects on his 10 years' experience of using games and experiments and in the process develops a type of practitioner's guide. The existing quantitative and qualitative evidence on the impact of using games on student learning is reviewed. On balance, a positive...

This paper reviews international experiences with the implementation of wage subsidies and develops a policy framework to guide their design in developing countries. The evidence suggests that, if the goal is only to create jobs, wage subsidies are unlikely to be an effective instrument. Wage...

This article analyses the effect of labor turnover on the productivity of Brazilian manufacturing firms between 1996 and 2013. We based our analysis on a theory of learning by doing, where turnover harms productivity by restricting the efficiency gains achieved by workers when they accumulate...

We develop an endogenous growth model with three goods, exportable, importable and non-tradable. We study the response of the real exchange rate and of the economy growth rate to a decrease in the tariff rate. We show that trade liberalization must be followed by a depreciation of the real...

An important question for firms and policy makers is whether the recruitment of foreign workers can boost innovation. Migration studies have demonstrated positive economic impacts of cultural diversity on productivity and innovation at the regional level, but the impacts at firm level are less...

Although the process of innovation is a crucial aspect of economic growth, there is less clarity about the measurement of economically useful ideas. Determining the extent to which different types of institutions contribute to the creation of new knowledge is essential for a deeper understanding...

Skills are widely regarded as being necessary for boosting productivity, stimulating innovation, and creating new jobs, while skill mismatches are often cited as being responsible for a lack of dynamism in the labor market. However, heavy investments in technical and vocational training programs...

Since the mid-1990s German technology policy has experienced a paradigmatic shift from standard grant schemes towards a region-oriented and competition-based R&D policy. Currently, a new policy experiment, the InterClust contest, is under way, trying to simultaneously foster place-based...