Lateral Moves, Promotions, and Task-Specific Human Capital: Theory and Evidence

Author(s):  
Xin Jin ◽  
Michael Waldman

Abstract This paper studies the link between lateral mobility and promotions. The first part of the paper extends the theoretical literature by incorporating lateral moves into a job assignment model with task-specific human capital accumulation. The model thus predicts that workers who are laterally moved in one period are more likely to be subsequently promoted and experience larger wage growth compared with workers who are not laterally moved. In addition, workers with very high levels of education are less likely to be laterally moved compared with workers with lower levels of education. We test the model’s predictions using a large employer–employee linked panel dataset on senior managers in a sample of large US firms during the period 1981 to 1985. Our findings support the theoretical predictions and show the importance of lateral mobility in wage and promotion dynamics. (JEL J31, M51)

2011 ◽  
pp. 66-77
Author(s):  
O. Vasilieva

Does resource abundance positively affect human capital accumulation? Or, alternatively, does it «crowd out» the human capital leading to the deterioration of economic growth? The paper gives an overview of the relevant literature and discusses both theoretical and empirical results obtained regarding the connection between human capital accumulation and resource abundance. It shows that despite some theoretical predictions about the harmful effect of resource abundance on human capital accumulation, unambiguous evidence of such impact that would be robust with respect to the change of resource abundance parameter has not been obtained yet.


Author(s):  
Tobias Maier

AbstractThe change of tasks in occupations is of interest to economic and sociological research from three perspectives. The task-based technological change approach describes tasks as the link between capital input and labor demand. In human capital theory, tasks are used to distinguish between general and specific human capital. Moreover, in institutional economics or sociology, it is argued that the specificity of occupations influences the marketability of the corresponding skills and tasks. However, data sources that illustrate task change within occupations are rare. The objective of this paper is therefore to introduce a task panel, which is created based on 16 cross-sectional surveys from between 1973 and 2011 of the German microcensus (Labor-Force-Survey), as an additional source to monitor task change. I present and discuss the harmonization method for eleven main activities that are exercised by the incumbents of the occupation within 176 occupational groups. To demonstrate the research potential of this novel data source, I develop an alternative theoretical view on the task-technology framework and classify the harmonized tasks according to their relationship to technological inventions in the third industrial (micro-electronic) revolution (technologically replaceable, technology-accompanying, technology-complementary and technologically neutral). Matching the task panel to an already existing Occupational Panel (OccPan) for Western Germany from 1976 to 2010, I can use fixed-effect regressions to show that changes of tasks within occupations correspond with theoretical expectations regarding the median wage growth of an occupation. The task panel can be matched to any data set containing a German classification of occupations from 1975, 1988 or 1992 to investigate further effects of task change on individual labor market success.


2009 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Hiller

SummaryThis paper employs the χ-value to analyse who benefits from investments in general or in specific human capital, the employer or the employee. Within this framework, we replicate the standard results of human capital theory.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 2866
Author(s):  
Li Zhang ◽  
Ping Gao ◽  
Yongtao Zhou ◽  
Yuchuan Zhang ◽  
Junhua Wang

Drawing upon human capital theory and the co-production view of business support processes, this paper investigates the moderating effects of network involvement on entrepreneurship-specific human capital (ESHC) that determines the tenants’ survival in an incubator. Longitudinal data between 2006 and 2009 of 71 ventures located in an incubator in China have been collected and analyzed. The research confirms that network involvement strengthens the influence of entrepreneurial experience on tenants’ successful graduation, but does not impact the relationship between entrepreneurial family background and tenants’ graduation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 732-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Amankwah-Amoah

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the dynamics of human capital accumulation and human capital depletion in the processes leading to business failure.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on the human capital theory, strategic human resource and business failure literature, this paper develops a conceptual framework which links the inward and outward dimensions of human capital flows in the business failure process.FindingsThe analysis sheds light on why some highly skilled individuals may opt to flee declining firms to avoid being stigmatised whilst others become motivated to joint such firms.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper suggests that understanding the nature and dynamics of both flows are essential when seeking to avert collapse.Originality/valueIn spite of a growing body of research on business failure and intense competition for top talent, much of the existing literature has circumvented the relationship between them. This study develops a unified model towards enhancing our understanding of the human capital flows.


ILR Review ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 562-586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uta Schönberg

This paper compares the sources of wage growth of young male workers in two countries with very different labor market institutions, the United States and Germany. The author first develops a simple method for decomposing wage growth into components due to general human capital accumulation, firm-specific human capital accumulation, and job search. The empirical analysis uses data from administrative records (Germany) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (United States) for cohorts entering the labor market in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Although the two countries differed substantially in mobility rates, they were similar in the sources of wage growth, with general human capital accumulation being the most important single source and job search accounting for an additional 25% or more of total wage growth. There is no evidence that returns to firm-specific human capital accumulation were higher for German apprentices than for U.S. high school dropouts or graduates.


2020 ◽  
pp. 232209372097001
Author(s):  
Navaneethakrishnan Kengatharan

Drawing on the knowledge-based theory of the firm and organisational learning theory, the present study chiefly examines the impact of firm-specific human capital on organisational ambidexterity and the subsequent effect of organisational ambidexterity on productivity by integrating human capital theory with the theory of transaction cost. The data were garnered from 197 managers in Sri Lanka with self-reported questionnaires in a time-lagged approach. The results disclose strong significant relationships between the variables investigated: a chain of positive relationships between firm-specific human capital and organisational ambidexterity, organisational ambidexterity and productivity, and productivity and firm performance; and mediated relationships between firm-specific human capital and productivity through organisational ambidexterity, and between organisational ambidexterity and firm performance via productivity. The findings of the study push back the frontiers of human resource management literature in many ways. Notably, managers should be cognizant of the effects of firm-specific human capital, organisational ambidexterity, and productivity on firm performance.


Author(s):  
M. Anastacia Mamabolo ◽  
Myres Kerrin ◽  
Tumo Kele

<strong>Background:</strong> Entrepreneurs need entrepreneurial skills to run their businesses. Skills can come from various sources, and the usage of the sources of skills can vary according to the different entrepreneurship phases.<p><strong>Aim:</strong> Adopting a human capital theory perspective, this study determined the specific human capital investments as sources of skills needed by entrepreneurs across the different entrepreneurship phases. The sources of skills included work experience, formal education, entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship experience.</p><p><strong>Setting:</strong> Entrepreneurs at the different entrepreneurship phases which are nascent (entrepreneurs with ventures less than 3 months in existence), new business (entrepreneurs with ventures with more than 3 months but less than 3.5 years in existence) and established business (entrepreneurs with ventures more than 3.5 years in existence).</p><p><strong>Method:</strong> The study employed a survey research design. An online questionnaire was used to collect the data.</p><p><strong>Results:</strong> The results show that the sources of skills are used differently across the entrepreneurship phases. As entrepreneurs start businesses, in the nascent phase, the use of human capital investments (especially formal education) as a source of skills declines, thus creating a need to acquire more entrepreneurship-specific investments. In addition to acquiring skills from human capital investments, entrepreneurs learn skills from people in their social networks and self-taught skills which are used differently across the different entrepreneurship phases.</p><p><strong>Conclusion:</strong> The findings indicate that the human capital investments are dynamic and change over time as the entrepreneurship phases unfold. Because there are different sources of skills for each entrepreneurship phase, entrepreneurs need to be treated according to their phases.</p>


2007 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ngo Van Long ◽  
Raymond Riezman ◽  
Antoine Soubeyran

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