We discuss how the use of field experiments sheds light on long standing research questionsrelating to firm behavior. We present insights from two classes of experiments: within andacross firms, and draw common lessons from both sets. Field experiments within firmsgenerally aim to shed light on...

We study how workers’ wages respond to TFP-driven innovations in firms’ labor productivity.Using unique data with highly reliable firm-level output prices and quantities in themanufacturing sector in Sweden, we are able to derive measures of physical (as opposed torevenue) TFP to instrument...

We provide the first econometric study of efficiency for a member of the Mondragon group ofworker cooperatives. Eroski is a retail distribution chain and, most unusually, there are twodistinct types of hypermarkets: (i) cooperatives with significant employee ownership andvoice; and (ii) GESPAs...

Flexicurity labour markets are characterised by flexible hiring/firing rules, generous socialsafety net, and active labour market policies. How can such labour markets cope with theconsequences of the Great Recession? Larger labour shedding is to be expected and thisstrains the social safety net...

There is a well-established positive correlation between life-satisfaction measures andincome in individual level cross-sectional data. This paper attempts to provide some evidenceon whether this correlation reflects causality running from money to happiness. I use industrywage differentials as...

We estimate the relative contribution of mobile scientists who leave academia for the privatesector on the subsequent innovative performance of the firms they join. We use data on thepopulation of Danish firms and their R&D workers for the period 1999-2004 and measureinnovation performance by...

About one in four workers challenges her dismissal in front of a labor court in France. Using adata set of individual labor disputes brought to French courts over the years 1996 to 2003,we examine the impact of labor court activity on labor market flows. First, we present asimple theoretical...

This paper assesses the impact of product market competition on job instability as proxied bythe use of fixed-term labor contracts. Using both worker data from the Spanish Labor ForceSurvey and firm data from the Spanish Business Strategies Survey, I show that job instabilityrises with...

This paper examines the interaction between minimum wage legislation and tax evasion byemployed labor. I develop a model in which firms and workers may agree to report less thanthe true amount of earnings to the fiscal authorities. I show that introducing a minimum wagecreates a spike in the...

We study the mapping between labor mobility and industrial innovative activity for thepopulation of R&D active Danish firms observed between 1999 and 2004. Our studydocuments a positive relationship between the number of workers who join a firm and thefirm’s innovative activity. This...