In this paper we show that vocational training is an important determinant of productivitygrowth. We construct a multi-country, multi-sectoral dataset, and quantify empirically to whatextent vocational training has contributed to increase the growth rate of labor productivity inEurope between...

There is no robust empirical support for the effect of financial incentives on the decision towork in self-employment rather than as a wage earner. In the literature, this is seen as apuzzle. We offer a focus on the opportunity cost, i.e. the wages given up as an employee.Information on income...

Using a large representative German data set and various concepts of self-employment, thispaper tests the “jack-of-all-trades” view of entrepreneurship by Lazear (AER 2004).Consistent with its theoretical assumptions we find that self-employed individuals performmore tasks and that their...

While results are starting to emerge, not much is known yet about the dynamics of the labormarkets of the former Eastern economies, especially in the context of the current FinancialCrisis. Arguably, this is mainly due to paucity of (panel) data. By examining labor markettransitions, earnings...

This paper examines the determinants of young innovative companies’ (YICs) R&D activitiestaking into account the autoregressive nature of innovation. Using a large longitudinal datasetcomprising Spanish manufacturing firms over the period 1990-2008, we find that previousR&D experience is a...

The economic impact of the 2007-2009 increases in the federal minimum wage (MW) isanalyzed using a sample of quick-service restaurants in Georgia and Alabama. Store-levelbiweekly payroll records for individual employees are used, allowing us to precisely measurethe MW compliance cost for each...

Many previous studies try to discover job preferences by directly asking individuals. Since itis not sure, whether answers to these surveys are relevant for actual behaviour, this empiricalexamination offers a new approach based on representative German data. Employees whoquit their job and find...

We address the long standing question of whether production factors are paid their marginalproducts. We propose a new approach that circumvents the need to specify productionfunctions and to compare marginal products to factor payments. Our approach is based on asimple equation that directly...

The robust empirical finding that exporting firms are systematically different from firms thatmerely serve domestic consumers has inspired the development of a new brand of tradetheory, the theory of heterogeneous firms and trade. The establishment of a canonical modeldue to Melitz (2003) has...

We estimate the responses of gross labor earnings with respect to marginal and average netof-tax rates in France over the period 2003-2006. We exploit a series of reforms to theincome-tax and the payroll-tax schedules that affect individuals who earn less than twice theminimum wage. Our estimate...