Human capital and screening theories of the role of education in the labour market have similar predictions about individual behaviour and labour market outcomes. This makes it difficult to test between the theories. Nevertheless, the task of doing so is important since the social return to education is likely to be small unless education adds to productivity as human capital theory, but not screening theory, assumes. Education may only convey information about likely individual productivity under screening. It serves this function because individual productivity is difficult for employers to observe. In fact, there is very little evidence from existing tests of the theories that education does not add to productivity. However, few of the tests that have been undertaken between the theories are convincing. The three empirical chapters of this thesis contain tests of some aspects of the theories.

It has been widely observed that economic activities are increasingly dependent on intangible, knowledge-based resources (Hayek, 1945; Drucker, 1966; Bell, 1973; Brinkley, 2006). One result of the move to a knowledge economy is that traditional notions of work and human resources have broken down and organizations have adopted new methods of sourcing knowledge. This thesis addresses the question of how organizations can optimally determine their requirements for knowledge from within and outside their boundaries. The objective of the thesis is to develop a theory of organizational knowledge supply and to test the theory in explaining and predicting the effectiveness of an organization's knowledge sourcing strategies. The research question driving this thesis therefore is: &quoteCan knowledge-based theory of the firm explain the relationship between organizations' mix of internal and external human resources and organizational effectiveness?&quote The aim of this thesis is to contribute to human resources and organizational theory through its theoretical model and empirical evidence of the relationship between knowledge sourcing and organizational effectiveness. The thesis also aims to contribute to practice by informing organizations about the effectiveness of different human sourcing practices. Knowledge-based theory of the firm and contingency theory were used to develop an initial theoretical model of fit and effectiveness. To extend existing theoretical models, and to support the case study, the initial theoretical model was refined so that it not only included fit and effectiveness (as in past research), but it also posited a model of the intervening process by which fit leads to effectiveness. To test the posited theoretical model, a comparative case study was commenced in mid- 2004, in two 4.5 star inner city hotels in Australia, each a member of a different hotel group. Qualitative and quantitative research methods were used, with semi-structured interviews and questionnaires as the key data collection methods. The main data collection process was completed in April 2005. The findings from the study generally support the theoretical model. The case study however also revealed that much of the effect of the fit of human capital on organizational effectiveness was constrained and enabled by two other organizational resources (hotel systems and processes, and the hotel brand standard). This finding suggests that existing theoretical models that suggest an independent effect of human capital fit on performance may be incomplete. In summary the thesis research question was answered with a conditional affirmative. In other words, knowledge-based theory can explain the relationship between organizations' mix of internal and external human resources and organizational effectiveness, but existing knowledgehuman capital-based models of this relationship can be extended and thus improved in two ways: 1) By positing a model of the intervening process by which human capital fit leads to organizational effectiveness. 2) By positing a model of the degree to which the effect of human capital fit on organizational effectiveness depends on other organizational resources.

Human capital and screening theories of the role of education in the labour market have similar predictions about individual behaviour and labour market outcomes. This makes it difficult to test between the theories. Nevertheless, the task of doing so is important since the social return to education is likely to be small unless education adds to productivity as human capital theory, but not screening theory, assumes. Education may only convey information about likely individual productivity under screening. It serves this function because individual productivity is difficult for employers to observe. In fact, there is very little evidence from existing tests of the theories that education does not add to productivity. However, few of the tests that have been undertaken between the theories are convincing. The three empirical chapters of this thesis contain tests of some aspects of the theories.

Using human capital theory and social capital theory, I develop a model to explain the circumstances surrounding outside director appointments, patterns of outside board affiliations and outside director exits. I investigate why individuals become outside directors, why they continue to serve as directors after appointment, and why they terminate their service on boards. I find that an executive's home firm career and prestigious affiliations predict the likelihood and patterns of outside directorship service. Outside directors are critical to effective corporate governance, and to understand the board-governance process we need a better understanding of outside director service.

Numbers of persons with a higher education have inclined fast during the last dec-ades, as the University sector in Sweden has increased. This due to that the Swedish government has had a very encouraging attitude towards the Universities position for economic regional growth. The aim of this thesis is to see if there are any relationships between students at a University in a region and the number of patents that have been applied for in the same region using data taken from European patent of-fice and Statistics Sweden. Patent is one way to measure innovations, and knowledge is one of the core foundations for new innovations. Different models have been used to determine if any significant relationship between patent applications and number of people with higher education is present. The empirical findings came up with the results that numbers of people with higher education have positive relationship with University regions. The two variables, people with higher technical education and research and development at Universities also showed positive significant results, which gives support for the chosen theories in the thesis. It is hard to say that the decen-tralization of the Swedish universities have been a total success, because in the thesis results were found which shoed that the Malmö region was outstanding in terms of patent applications. In this region many different Universities and private R&D de-partments are located, together with students etc. Further research in this field has to be conducted to be able to give the policy maker better foundation for decisions.

The study has twelve chapters. After a brief introduction in chapter 1 the development and scope of Swedish manpower training are summarized in chapter 2. Chapter 3 examines to what extent Swedish manpower training has contributed to the attainment of the overall goals of economic policy. Aspects of stabilization, allocation, growth and distribution are dealt with. The chapter ends with a brief review of attempts in the economics of education to explain why it may be advantageous for an individual to participate in manpower training. Chapter 4 opens with an account of results from Swedish and a number of American evaluations of manpower training. In order to assess the effects for the individual some kind of comparison must be made between participants and non-participants. Ways of doing this are discussed. The planning and implementation of the empirical study is described in chapter 5. One aim of the study is to determine the profitability of manpower training for the trainees. The trainees are compared to individuals in similar positions when the former started their training. In chapter 6 the main groups and the control groups are described with reference, to inter alia: sex, age, educational and occupational background. For the trainees, the occupations that the training leads to were also considered. One of the most important aims of manpower training is to improve the position of the trainees on the job market; that is, to shorten the duration of unemployment and to increase the time spent in gainful employment. Chapter 7 describes how the employment situation of the trainees has changed compared to that of the control groups. The effects of manpower training on employment are then analyzed in chapter 8 using regression analysis. Attention is paid to partial response and self selection. In addition to effects on employment, effects on income are also of interest. The measures of income used in the study are defined in chapter 9. These measures are then used in chapter 10 where the income of the trainees is compared to that of the control groups in order to determine to what extent income is influenced by manpower training. Chapter 11 analyzes how participation in manpower training has influenced income. The measures of income used are earned income, hourly wage and three measures of disposable income. Finally, the study concludes in chapter 12 with a summary and discussion. / digitalisering@umu

This dissertation is comprised of three papers. In Chapter 1 I analyze if career heterogeneity in terms of life-cycle earnings, occupational mobility and unemployment is predominantly driven by skills acquired prior to labor market entry or by decisions made and shocks accumulated over the working life. My study is based on a Dynamic Discrete Choice model that enriches the proto-typical dynamic Roy-model with a number of potentially important sources of career heterogeneity, such as match heterogeneity and permanent shocks to skills. I find that a large fraction of life-cycle income inequality is driven by match heterogeneity among workers with the same observable and unobservable credentials. Differences in comparative advantages, though quantitatively important as well, have a much smaller impact than what has been found in research that relies on estimates from more restrictive dynamic Roy models. In Chapter 2 I estimate a flexible non-stationary variance components model of residual earnings dynamics and investigate if recent increases in residual inequality are caused by an increase of the variances of permanent, persistent or transitory shocks. My results suggest that underlying sources of increasing wage inequality are very different across education groups. Most importantly, only the lesser educated experience a large increase in earnings instability. Chapter 1 and 2 utilize a unique administrative data set from Germany that follows workers from the time of labor market entry until twenty-three years into their careers. In the last chapter I investigate empirically if a particular set of pre-labor market skills – namely university student achievement – can be fostered by assigning male teachers to male students and female teachers to female students. I find that being taught by a same-sex instructor helps students to improve their relative grade performance and the likelihood of completing a course, but the magnitudes of these effects are small.

This dissertation is comprised of three papers. In Chapter 1 I analyze if career heterogeneity in terms of life-cycle earnings, occupational mobility and unemployment is predominantly driven by skills acquired prior to labor market entry or by decisions made and shocks accumulated over the working life. My study is based on a Dynamic Discrete Choice model that enriches the proto-typical dynamic Roy-model with a number of potentially important sources of career heterogeneity, such as match heterogeneity and permanent shocks to skills. I find that a large fraction of life-cycle income inequality is driven by match heterogeneity among workers with the same observable and unobservable credentials. Differences in comparative advantages, though quantitatively important as well, have a much smaller impact than what has been found in research that relies on estimates from more restrictive dynamic Roy models. In Chapter 2 I estimate a flexible non-stationary variance components model of residual earnings dynamics and investigate if recent increases in residual inequality are caused by an increase of the variances of permanent, persistent or transitory shocks. My results suggest that underlying sources of increasing wage inequality are very different across education groups. Most importantly, only the lesser educated experience a large increase in earnings instability. Chapter 1 and 2 utilize a unique administrative data set from Germany that follows workers from the time of labor market entry until twenty-three years into their careers. In the last chapter I investigate empirically if a particular set of pre-labor market skills – namely university student achievement – can be fostered by assigning male teachers to male students and female teachers to female students. I find that being taught by a same-sex instructor helps students to improve their relative grade performance and the likelihood of completing a course, but the magnitudes of these effects are small.

This study examines curriculum vitae (CV) data from 447 scientists and engineers at academic research centers in the United States, ranging from post-doctoral researchers to full professors and research directors in order to figure out the pattern of scientific discipline trajectory and the relation of the scientists discipline mobility to productivity. This study shows that natural sciences have highest percentage of scientists who have the same bachelors degree field as their highest degree field and higher degree of mobility across the disciplines is negatively associated with their productivity. On the contrary, for life sciences, higher degree of mobility across the disciplines is positively associated with scientific productivity.

Whether entrepreneurial opportunity is objectively existed or it could be deliberately created is still a disputable issue in academic filed. However, increasing number of scholars tend to conclude that entrepreneurial opportunity comes from a process of recognition, discovery and creation by alerted entrepreneurs. Based on this point, it seems to be obvious that entrepreneurs must have some kind of knowledge and abilities, poses special source of information and involved in certain social networks. So that they can easily find those opportunities that other can¡¦t. In this study, I apply Ardichivili¡¦s(2003) opportunity identification and development theory to discuss this issue through a viewpoint of human capital and social capital. Seven entrepreneurs were interviewed to conduct the survey, and the content is analyzed through six coding unit to show the following results: 1. The general human capital is intermediately positive to opportunity recognition and highly positive to opportunity development. 2. The specific human capital is highly positive to both opportunity recognition and opportunity development. 3. The weak-tie network is highly positive to opportunity recognition but low positive to opportunity development. 4. The strong-tie network is highly positive to both opportunity recognition and opportunity development. 5. Entrepreneurial human capital is mediated by social capital to have positive effects on opportunity recognition and opportunity development.