Work incentives are closely related to production performance. This paper presents evidence that the value added of a firm increases when relative labor costs rise, or the level of unemployment increases. Both circumstances imply evidence in favor of the efficiency wage model. This theory is...

This paper analyses the relationship between exports, innovative activities and size and their effect over firms’ technical efficiency and then over their productivity. The analysis takes, also, into account other variables that could affect productivity as industrial sector, or firms’...

One of the characteristics of the Spanish economy is the high percentage of small and medium-sized firms. Size is one of the factors that condition the managerial organization of the firms and their efficiency and productivity. Moreover size has been found a highly significant variable in...

In this paper, the socioeconomic and individual characteristics that favor mobility are analyzed. The stochastic frontier technique is used as an instrument of analysis to measure the differences that arise between the potential wage and the one that should be obtained for an individual with...

This paper provides an explanation for the existence of gender discrimination in the labour market focusing on the intergenerational transmission of preferences related to the attitude of women towards jobs and family. Changes in women's preferences over generations depend on the socialization...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence concerning wage differentials and the existence of gender pay discrimination in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. Design/methodology/approach – The authors used the stochastic frontier approach as an alternative...