Workplace Heterogeneity and the Returns to Versatility

In the canonical random on-the-job search model with continuous firm heterogeneity, I show that a mean-preserving spread of the firm-productivity distribution raises the returns to mobility, i.e., the inter-firm mobility of workers as measured by the number of outside contacts per employment spell. Both sorting and rent-share mechanisms play a role. In a further contribution, I distinguish frictional and structural impediments to mobility in order to establish a link between mobility and skills via the concept of versatility. Versatility enhances a person’s mobility since a mismatch between job requirements and the person’s skill set is less likely to occur. I provide some statistics in support of the discussed mechanisms. The findings are particularly intriguing in light of the concurrent rise in the productivity dispersion across firms and in the skill premium in many countries.

The influence of affixes on the phonosemantic gradable picture of derivative words in V. Mayakovsky's poetic texts

In a poetic text, derivative words play an important role in solving artistic problems and creating images. The wordformation method is a set of affixes linked by paradigmatic relations that differ in productivity, distribution and additional meanings. V. Mayakovsky's texts are characterised by the productive use of neologisms, which creates their specificity and uniqueness and contributes to the realisation of certain qualitative and characterising meanings. Derivatives and word-formation devices become the means of actualising different gradable meanings: these formations are characterised by the expression of the gradable semantics of derivatives (increase/intensification,, higher/extreme degree of manifestation of a feature, process, phenomenon), contained in the gradoseme (the seme of measure and degree) of the language units under study. Affixal neologisms implement and specify quality attributes of the meanings expressed. The speaker's subjective perception of the real world is conveyed. Mayakovsky's poetic texts give the material to examine the affixal formation of nouns and adjectives in terms of its influence on the richness of speech. The research focuses on the words that allow the narrator to solve artistic and aesthetic problems and to became the basic means of creating the image. The particular expressiveness of these formations is explained by the contrast between the style and the special semantics of gradual prefixes. The objective phonosemantic picture of the words/word pairs in question reflects different relationships between sound and meaning, ranging from complete conformity to contradiction between them. The contradictions between sound and meaning in affixal structures usually lead to ironic use of derived lexemes in context. These structures perform different semantic and contextual functions.

Reconciling Models of Diffusion and Innovation: A Theory of the Productivity Distribution and Technology Frontier

We study how endogenous innovation and technology diffusion interact to determine the shape of the productivity distribution and generate aggregate growth. We model firms that choose to innovate, adopt technology, or produce with their existing technology. Costly adoption creates a spread between the best and worst technologies concurrently used to produce similar goods. The balance of adoption and innovation determines the shape of the distribution; innovation stretches the distribution, while adoption compresses it. On the balanced growth path, the aggregate growth rate equals the maximum growth rate of innovators. While innovation drives long‐run growth, changes in the adoption environment can influence growth by affecting innovation incentives, either directly, through licensing of excludable technologies, or indirectly, via the option value of adoption.

The Micro-Origins of Business Cycles: Evidence from German Metropolitan Areas

How large is volatility due to large firms? We answer this question through both reduced-form analysis and a calibration exercise. First, we exploit time and spatial variation across German cities and show that i) higher concentration is associated with more persistent local business cycles, ii) local concentration Granger-causes local employment volatility. From a business cycle perspective, we find evidence in favor of granularity-driven recessions only. Next, we calibrate a structural model along the lines of Carvalho and Grassi (2019) and find that the more fat-tailed productivity distribution in bigger cities crucially depends also on the higher probability for firms to grow.

DRIVING LABOR PRODUCTIVITY: THE ROLE OF CAPABILITY AND HUMAN CAPITAL IN MALAYSIA’S FOOD MANUFACTURING FIRMS

Productivity gains are not only important for competitiveness but also for other welfare gains. And, importantly, industry structure matters in driving the productive gains. This study examines the labor productivity of food manufacturing firms in Malaysia and the effect of capability and human capital on productivity. The findings show productivity heterogeneity among firms, and as capabilities and human capital grow, productivity gains become much higher. Importantly, it shows that bundles of capability, namely, innovation, information and communication technology (ICT) and marketing as well as human capital become more relevant as firms move to the higher end of the productivity distribution. The findings are robust to different measures of human capital and capabilities. Examining the effects separately indicates that innovation matters the most in driving labor productivity. The coefficient of ICT declines as firms move up the conditional productivity distribution. Likewise, market creating capability of the firms enhances productivity, but the coefficient does not vary across the lower and upper productivity quantiles. The study concludes the implications for persistent labor productivity differences across capabilities and human capital by drawing policy implications.

Variabel Penentu Produktivitas Amil dan Kinerja Penyaluran Zakat dan Infaq pada Baznas Kabupaten di Provinsi Jawa Timur

This study aims to determine how the performance of BAZNAS Jawa Timur in zakat, infaq, and shadaqah distribution. This type of research is explanatory research, namely research that explains the relationship of the influence of independent variables on the dependent variable through the hypothesis test. Type of data used in this study is secondary data in the form of financial data sourced from financial statements related to the variables studied. Data source obtained by BAZNAS financial report in East Java Province. The results of this study are the zakat collection variable and infaq collection variable does not affect the amil productivity. Amil productivity does not affect the performance of zakat distribution and infaq distribution performance. All hypotheses are rejected. Keywords: Zakat, Infaq, Shadaqah, Collecting, Amil Productivity, Distribution Performance.

Decoupling the CES Distribution Circle with Quality and Beyond: Equilibrium Distributions and the CES-Logit Nexus

We show for CES demands with heterogeneous productivities that profit, revenue and output distributions lie in the same closed power family as the productivity distribution (e.g., the ‘Pareto circle’). The price distribution lies in the inverse power family. Equilibrium distribution shapes are linked by linear relations between their density elasticities. Introducing product quality decouples the CES circle, and reconciles Pareto price and Pareto sales revenue distributions. We use discrete choice underpinnings to find variable mark-ups for a more flexible demand formulation bridging CES to logit and beyond. For logit demand, exponential (resp. normal) quality-cost distributions generate Pareto (log-normal) economic size distributions.

Scientometric Profile of Biochemistry Research in India a Study Based on Web of Science

The paper examines 25,132 biochemistry research contributions of Indian scientists covered in the Web of Science for a period of 10 years (2004-2013). It was found that the biochemistry research is gradually growing and average annual growth rate was 36.84 per cent. The solo research was not prevalent and team research is more in the Indian biochemistry research and 97.46 per cent publications were contributed by multi- authors. It was observed that the value of co- authorship index was generally increasing and it varied from 93 to 105 during the period of study. Journal articles contribute 89.43 per cent of the total output followed by reviews (7.14 %). Indian researchers collaborate largely with the researchers of USA (2.49 %). The geographical distribution shows that Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi lead the list. The study shows that, C. Abdul Jaleel (58) and L. Pai (37) are the top ranked authors in the field. ‘Plos One’ is the top ranked journal and it published 296 papers during the study period. Academic institutions contribute more number of papers (50.26 %) followed by research institutions (28.24 %). The Lotka’s law was not found fit with the observed author productivity distribution of Indian biochemistry research.