We study the effects of a field experiment designed to motivate employee ideas, at a large technology company. Employees were encouraged to submit ideas on process and product improvements via an online system. In the experiment, the company randomized 19 account teams into treatment and control...

In knowledge-intensive economies, ideas and innovation are key drivers of a company's competitiveness and success. In such a climate a company must strategise methods designed to incentivize the generation of new ideas and build a culture that rewards the production of knowledge. Many scholars...

Drawing on a single large U.S. corporation's personnel records for the years 1989-93, the authors analyze an example of the kind of formal salary system used by most large firms. The system was highly centralized, covering salary levels, salary ranges, raises, and bonuses. Supervisors had little...

We analyze twenty years of personnel data from one firm. The hierarchical structure is quite simple and stable. Career movements suggest that the employee's rate of learning and the firm's learning about ability are important. There are promotion 'fast tracks.' Exit rates vary little with tenure...

Personnel records are used to examine compensation, recruitment, and retention of a group of highly skilled workers: civilian scientists and engineers in U.S. Department of Defense laboratories. In contrast to those of the private sector, returns to skills were largely flat for this group from...

Salary data from a single firm are analyzed in an effort to identify the firm's wage policy. The authors find that employees are partly shielded against changes in external market conditions; that wage variation within a job level is large both cross-sectionally and for individuals over time,...

"Appreciation for comparative statics analysis and will be better prepared to interpret events in real markets. Learning-By-Doing exercises, embedded in the text of each Chapter, guide the student through specific numerical problems. We use three to ten Learning-By-Doing exercises in each...