Thesis advisor: Andrew Beauchamp / Thesis advisor: Arthur Lewbel / This thesis sheds light on two cutting-edge topics in Labor Economics, peer effects in the workplace and non-cognitive skills, and makes a methodological contribution to the related literature. The literature on peer effects in the workplace seeks to better understand co-workers' effect on an individual's productivity through the interactions among workers beyond the production technology. In the first essay, titled Learning When It Counts: Evidence from Professional Bowling Tournaments, I test the hypothesis that a worker can improve productivity by learning from peer co-workers in high-skill jobs. While demand for high-skill workers has been increasing, high-skill jobs often require workers to make a decision, facing uncertainty underlying their tasks. Highly skilled professionals have deep insights to pick up meaningful patterns of information. Therefore, if they are in an environment that allows them to learn additional information from co-workers, their productivity can improve. In this paper, I examine the productivity effects of learning among high-skill peers about uncertain conditions underlying their tasks with variations in the "space of ideas," exploiting a unique, novel dataset from professional bowling competitions. Specifically, a bowler learns about lane conditions in part by watching his competitor bowl on the same lane. A right-handed bowler learns more relevant (to his task) information from competing with another right-hander than with a left-hander, as the used part of the lanes (the proximate space of ideas) varies with handedness. I compare the probabilities of bowling a strike of bowlers matched with like-handed competitors versus opposite-handed competitors. I find a large impact of the same ideas space on learning, e.g, being paired with a like-handed bowler increases strike probability by 14 percentage points. This finding adds evidence for the existence of peer effects in high-skill jobs. I also show that learning curves exist only when bowlers are in same-handed match-ups, by examining how these differences change from one frame to the next over a game. Another calculation is determining how much total scores could be increased by pairing bowlers to raise the proximity in the space of ideas. These results are suggestive of how much workplaces might increase productivity by optimally pairing workers based on the proximity of the space of ideas. The second topic of this dissertation is non-cognitive skills such as conscientiousness, self-control and social skills. Conventionally, economists have assumed that measures of cognitive skills such as IQ were sufficient to represent the role of human capital in production. However, a growing body of research suggests that non-cognitive skills are important factors in educational attainment and labor outcomes. Recent research in psychology shows that bilingualism can help strengthen social skills and self-control. In the second essay, joint with Tracy Regan and titled Bilingual Advantage in Non-cognitive Skills, we examine the causal relationship between bilingualism and non-cognitive measures, exploiting a large dataset from Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002). To isolate the causality, we use an indicator for whether either parent was foreign-born as an instrumental variable for bilingualism. We find that raising the degree of speaking a language other than English to parents from none to all of the time can increase a student's percentile in the U.S. national distribution by 36 percentage points for conscientiousness (being well organized and working hard) and by 39 and 50 percentage points for instrumental motivation (academic motivation to achieve external goals such as better job opportunities) and persistence (keeping working even in difficulties). In particular, the bilingual advantage in persistence turns out to be significant only for disadvantaged children (the lowest socioeconomic status quartile) but insignificant for the others. These results suggest that bilingualism can be promoted as a policy tool to reduce inequality and call for further research on the relationship between bilingualism and non-cognitive skills. In the final essay, titled Simple Transformation for Finding a Maximum Weighted Matching in General Digraphs, I propose a novel, simple procedure using an existing efficient algorithm to find an optimal pairing that can produce the maximum output. As shown in the first essay, this algorithm can be useful for the optimal deployment of workforces with the consideration of peer effects. Particularly, the procedure is applicable to cases in which the order in a pair matters. The order can complicate the problem of finding optimal pairings, because a pair can have two orders. To address this ordered pairing problem, I devise a simple transformation of a general directed graph to a proper (undirected) graph. Using the transformed graph, a maximum weighted matching can be found, using any existing polynomial-time algorithm for undirected graphs. By recovering orientations in the found matching, a maximum weighted matching for the original directed graph can be found. I prove the matching from the suggested algorithm is always a maximum weighted matching in the directed graph. This thesis contributes to Labor Economics by adding evidence in newly-rising topics. The first chapter shows evidence of peer effect--learning from competitors--among high-skill workers. The second chapter suggests that bilinguals have an advantage in forming non-cognitive skills. The third chapter proposes an algorithm for finding an optimal pairing to maximize the aggregate productivity in the consideration of the learning effect found in the first chapter. I hope that the findings in the thesis will meaningfully contribute to the developing literature of Labor Economics. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

Wong Tin-Ip. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong. / Bibliography: l. [98-100]

This dissertation contains three essays on Macroeconomics. Detailed micro-level data is used in all three essays. The first chapter studies wealth inequality problems. More specif- ically, it focuses on capital return inequality among university endowments. It combines university-level data on endowment size, capital returns, and portfolio allocations into a unified dataset. Using panel data regression, I show a strong impact of size on investment return. Everything else the same, the biggest endowment has a capital return 8 percent higher than the smallest endowment. However, after adjusting for risk using Sharpe ratios, the strong positive correlation turns negligible or even negative. This result suggests that the higher return of bigger endowments can be attributed to risk compensation rather than to an informational premium. The second and the third chapters employ firm-level data to study macroeconomic pro- ductivity. The second chapter documents the sectoral growth paths of measured total factor productivity (TFP) in southern Europe during the boom that proceeded the great contraction (1996 to 2007). Using both aggregate and firm-level panel data, I show that TFP in sectors that displayed fast expansion, such as construction, dropped significantly, while in non- expanding sectors, such as manufacturing, it stayed stable. I evaluate the relevance of two alternative explanations of this phenomenon: capital misallocation (the increase in capital was directed to less productive firms) and labor quality mismeasurement (lower quality of incoming labor was not fully captured in the TFP calculation). I find that the misalloca- tion channel is almost negligible. Moreover, worker-firm matched data shows that labor quality did deteriorate in the expanding sectors but not in the others, giving credence to the labor-quality mismeasurement hypothesis. A model featuring both the misallocation and the mismeasurement channels and calibrated to match the micro-level productivity distri- bution and labor quality distribution predicts that the drop in true TFP was small if labor quality is measured properly. The third chapter documents the total factor productivity growth path in China from 1998 to 2015 using both the aggregate and the firm-level data. We find that measured TFP growth is positive from 1998 to 2011, before turning flat and even negative. A care- ful comparison between state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private firms reveals that the slowing down of TFP growth of SOEs is the major contributor to the TFP growth reversal of the whole manufacturing sector. The reversal is not due to changes in the composition of production in different sub-sectors, but mostly due to changes within existing firms.

This thesis assesses the efficiency wage hypothesis using Australian industry and macro economic time series data by focussing on two questions: whether paying an above market clearing wage called the efficiency wage raises industry output and productivity, and if such a payment causes unemployment at the macro economic level. The wageproductivity or wage-output nexus is investigated using three techniques; namely a decomposition procedure used by Huang, Halam, Orazem, and Paterno (1998), an instrumental variable estimation method, and the Solow residuals approach. Further, an examination of macro economic unemployment involves developing an aggregate unemployment equation, where the Solow (1979) model is used to derive a testable hypothesis. The Solow model argues that effort, which is a function of the wage, enters the production function when the real wage is rigid. By introducing profit maximising behaviour and making further economic assumptions, the Solow condition that the effort elasticity with respect to the wage is one can be derived. The theoretical framework of Solow is useful as specifying a production function allows the possibility of aggregate data being used to assess the wage-productivity prediction. The Solow condition is also useful because it provides the basis for constructing a testable hypothesis using an unemployment equation. Solow???s theoretical framework and the Solow condition does not rely on the economic assumptions of the shirking, labour turnover, sociological and adverse selection [micro economic] efficiency wage models. Therefore, the innovation of this thesis is to treat the efficiency wage hypothesis as an imperfectly competitive model of the labour market using applied macro economic methods. Previous Australian macro economic literature in the 1970s and 1980s have argued that the wage is either harmful to employment prospects (ie unemployment is classical), or that factors such as consumption and investment are more important (ie unemployment is Keynesian). One of the aims of the thesis is to use the empirical analysis to suggest that neither of these propositions is entirely correct. Rather, an intermediate position is arrived at by arguing that there is some empirical evidence in Australian industry and macro economic time series data to suggest that the wage plays a dual function: both as a small source of productivity and also a minor cause of involuntary unemployment.

This thesis applies innovative methods to the efficiency and productivity analysis of the Australian banking system. Key areas of investigation include the impact of regulatory reforms on bank performance, the impact of firm entry and exit on industry productivity and the changing nature of banking and the role of risk in measuring bank value-added. The latter leads to the construction of a new bank production model, emphasising risk management as part of a bank??s value-added. As such, the proposed bank output framework views risk as a productive service, rather than a bad output or externality, which is often assumed in the literature. Aided with this new framework, several refinements are suggested for the treatment and measurement of bank output by researchers and statistical agencies. A unified regulatory framework combined with a greater level of harmonisation in rules in the Australian banking sector, has meant that a pooled analysis of all deposit-taking institutions has become feasible for the first time. With an enlarged dataset new insights are gained into the relative performance of deposit-taking institutions in Australia. The results challenge commonly held views of bank efficiency and the relevance of scale, size and incumbency when measuring bank efficiency. The new definition of bank output is also applied across the sector using econometric and non-parametric techniques to gauge productivity. Problems with balanced data sets and aggregation of firm level productivity are examined. A new approach to decomposing aggregate industry level productivity is introduced based on strong axiomatic grounds and its ability to attribute productivity between continuing, exiting and entering firms. The technique is applied for the first time and uses the newly developed bank output production model. The analysis provides key information on the relative performance of firms in the Australian banking sector.

Tesis de grado para obtener el titulo profesional de "Ingeniero Zootecnista" Universidad Catolocia Boliviana "San Pabo" Unidad Academica Campesina Tiahuanaco. / Abstract in Spanish and English.

In conjunction with an investigation of past research, this study provides a measured account of changes in worker productivity resulting from changes including the application of new sensory design elements in a typical office environment. A case study is presented that follows a collection agencys relocation of offices in order to provide confirmation of a relationship between employee productivity and changes in the office environment. As noted, these changes included a general application of color in the new environment as compared to the neutral palette of the previous site. Data representing the total dollar amounts collected by individual employees is compiled for the two months directly prior (November and December 2004) and immediately following (January and February 2005) the companys relocation of offices to a space integrating various colors (red, blue, green, and gold) into the work environment. Information relating to a total of 10 client groups and the average volume per employee are compared for each of the months. In order to substantiate the findings, the monthly numbers are also compared to the same periods (November/December 2003 and January/February 2004) in the previous year.

Abstract This paper uses a sample of listed and unlisted securities companies in Taiwan to investigate the effects of employee productivity. The empirical estimation is based on a modified Cobb-Douglas production function. To provide a preliminary account of how the securities firms use the group incentive system and if the system certainly works as well as other companies on productivity effects, this paper examines the productivity effects via pooling the financial data during 1997-2000, the dataset is constructed of 132 securities firms. In addition, to estimate the incentive effects from the bonus, a number of independent variables are included in this study, such as profit-sharing dummy variables, amount of distributed shares, stock price and the ratio of profit sharing to net-profit. Moreover, the study also adds the ratio of profit sharing to wage to explore that if the wage risk could reduce the effects of employee productivity. The result indicates that firms with stock bonus will perform better than others, it apparently shows on listed companies, and the stock price is a key factor. Further, this study also finds that increasing the ratio of cash bonus to wage or to net-profit, it would significantly reduce employee productivity, especially on unlisted companies, and the stock bonus is contrary to the cash bonus.

This paper studies how outsourcing decision affects technology transfer, productive performance, and input composition. We estimate the impact of outsourcing on the Taiwan¡¦s Information Technology Industries by using a flexible (translog) function to represent. Comparing the channels of technology transfer ¡V export, purchasing technology, selling technology-, and export has stronger effect than purchasing technology. Selling technology may be uncertain. Outsourcing out and in improve firms¡¦ productivity. The impact of outsourcing out on labor demand will be uncertain. There are four industries increasing labor demand and two industries decreasing labor demand. Most Information Technology industries are complementary to labor.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2003. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-109). Also available on the World Wide Web.