Employees Of Large Firms Research Articles

Firm responses to a more generous insurance against high sick pay costs

This paper investigates how firms respond to a more generous insurance against high sick pay costs. We exploit a reform that introduced different thresholds for insurance reimbursement depending on firm size. By comparing employees in smaller firms with employees in large firms over time, we evaluate the effects of the reform. We find evidence of an increase in absence in middle-sized firms (an average 42 employees) but not in smaller firms. Our results suggest that this discrepancy may be due to the higher production costs associated with absences in smaller firms. The estimated positive effect in middle-sized firms is driven by new hires. These employees are not selected differently, but the probability of separation the following year is lower if they have reported sick. This suggests that the generosity of the insurance affected the probability of separation related to revealed absence.

Political skills, job resources, and career adaptability of R&D personnel

ABSTRACT R&D employees play a critical role in improving organisational creativity and innovation. However, they often face significant career risks when disruptive technological innovations emerge. Therefore, understanding the development of R&D employees’ career adaptability is an important area of research. This study proposes a research model that examines the direct effect of political skills on the career adaptability of R&D employees, with job resources functioning as a mediating variable in this relationship. By analysing two waves of survey data collected from 262 R&D employees in large firms in South Korea, the study develops a formative second-order construct of political skills and demonstrates its positive impact on the career adaptability. Furthermore, this study reveals that job resources mediate the relationship between political skills and career adaptation. This research contributes to the field of human resource management (HRM) for R&D employees and innovation studies by highlighting the socio-political foundation of innovation activities within organisations and emphasizing the importance of political skills in facilitating both career transition and the utilisation of job resources.

An analysis of the impact of the increase in social security contributions approved in 2023

Rationale The latest pension reform, approved in 2023, included three measures to increase social security contributions, aiming to boost social security revenue. This article analyses the impact and calculates the ex ante effect of the changes approved. Takeaways •The growth in the maximum contribution base will have an uneven impact on workers and firms, among other reasons because the contributions made by middle-aged and more highly-educated workers and by employees of large firms are more likely to be subject to the cap on contributions. •The higher social security contributions approved in 2023 will also have an uneven impact across the wage distribution. In particular, effective contribution rates will increase more for high wage levels. •The recently adopted increase in social security contributions could boost social security revenue ex ante by 0.9% of GDP in 2050. But this revenue growth could be smaller if higher labour costs adversely affect competitiveness, wages or employment.

Impact of Long Working Hours on Mental Health: Evidence from China.

Although previous studies have examined the impact of long working hours on mental health in China, they have not addressed the initial value and reverse causality issues. To bridge this gap in the literature, I conducted a dynamic longitudinal analysis to investigate the association between long working hours and the risk of mental illness nationwide. Using three-wave longitudinal data from the China Family Panel Studies conducted in 2014, 2016, and 2018, I adopted dynamic regression models with lagged long working hours variables to examine their association with the risk of mental illness. The results indicate that long working hours have positive and significant (p < 0.01 or p < 0.05) associations with the risk of mental illness (OR: 1.12~1.22). The effect is more significant for women, white-collar workers, and employees in micro-firms, compared with their counterparts (i.e., men, pink- and blue-collar workers, employees of large firms, and self-employed individuals). The results provide empirical evidence of the effects of long working hours on mental health in China, confirming the need to enforce the regulations regarding standard working hours and monitor regulatory compliance by companies, as these factors are expected to improve mental health.

From Population Growth to Firm Demographics: Implications for Concentration, Entrepreneurship and the Labor Share

In the U.S., large firms now account for a greater share of economic activity, new firms are being created at slower rates, and workers are receiving a smaller share of GDP. Changes in population growth provide a unified quantitative explanation. A decrease in population growth lowers firm entry rates, shifting the firm‐age distribution toward older firms. Firm aging accounts for (i) the concentration of employment in large firms, (ii) and trends in average firm size and exit rates, key determinants of firm entry rates. Feedback effects from firm demographics generate two‐thirds of the effect. Prior to the decrease, entry rates rose steadily reflecting the earlier baby boom. The glut of firms due to the baby boom lead to rich transitional dynamics within the feedback effects, accounting for more than half the total change. Baby boom induced changes in the firm‐age distribution provide a driving force for the post‐WWII rise and fall in the aggregate labor share. Ignoring changes in population growth attributes all the long run decline in entry rates to a decrease in firm exit rates, which in reality have been only one‐third as large.

From employee to entrepreneur: Learning, employer size, and spinout dynamics

Most new firms are founded by former employees of existing firms – spinouts. This paper explores how existing firms shape the entry and post-entry dynamics of spinouts and studies the aggregate implications of this relationship. Using micro-data from Mexico, I show that employees from small firms are more likely to form spinouts than employees of large firms. In addition, spinouts from large employers start at a larger scale and grow faster than spinouts from small employers. To reconcile these patterns, I develop a model of occupational choice and firm dynamics in which employees can learn from their employers. Using a calibrated version of the model, I analyze the implications of the link between employer size and spinout dynamics for macroeconomic outcomes within and across economies. I argue that learning efficiency – interpreted as management quality – is not only salient for understanding cross-country differences in spinout entry but also variation in the firm size distribution and output per worker. I also show that employee learning has meaningful and long-lasting implications for the creation of new firms and for workers in response to policies that target existing firms. Taken together, this paper establishes a connection between incumbent and entrant firms and shows that it is important for aggregate outcomes.

Rising Inequality and Shifting Class Boundaries in South Korea in the Neo-Liberal Era

ABSTRACT Having maintained a relatively equitable pattern of income distribution throughout the period of rapid economic development, South Korea has experienced a drastic increase of inequality over the past two decades. This article examines Korea’s income distribution pattern and identifies several structural cleavages and mechanisms in the economy that account for the rising inequality and then considers various class structural implications of this change in income distribution. It argues that Korea’s income distribution has become polarised, but that this polarisation is more complex than usually captured by the popular phrase, “the top 1% versus the bottom 99%.” It involves two forms of polarisation: one, occurring in the labour market between regularly employed and non-regularly employed workers, and between employees of large firms and smaller firms; and the other, between a minority of top income earners (the top 1% to 10%) and the rest of the labour force. The consequences of this skewed income distribution include a shrinking middle class, blurring class boundaries, internal divisions within both the middle and the working class, and the rise of a new, affluent middle class.

Employer Size and Spinout Dynamics

Most new firms are founded by former employees of existing firms – spinouts. This paper documents how employer size shapes the entry and post-entry dynamics of spinouts. Using micro-data from Mexico, I show that employees from small firms are more likely to form spinouts than employees of large firms. In addition, spinouts from large employers start at a larger scale and grow faster than spinouts from small employers. I argue that this results from employees learning from their employers and develop a model of occupational choice and firm dynamics which operationalizes this theory. Using a calibrated version of the model, I analyze the aggregate implications of the link between employer size and spinout dynamics for macroeconomic outcomes both within and across economies. First, I argue that learning efficiency – interpreted as management quality – not only accounts for differences in spinout formation between the U.S. and Mexico, but also explains a sizeable share of the variation in the firm size distribution and output per worker. Second, I show that employee learning has meaningful and long-term implications on the creation of new firms in response to policies that target existing firms. Taken together, this paper establishes a connection between incumbent and entrant firms and shows that it is important for aggregate outcomes.

Large firms and within firm occupational reallocation

This paper considers the equilibrium interaction between within firm and across firm reallocation in the presence of labor market frictions. While a sizable literature has investigated frictional labor markets, it has ignored within firm mobility. Nonetheless, every year a sizable fraction of workers switch occupations without changing firms. Employees in large firms can sample from a larger selection and across firm mobility is replaced by within firm mobility. Bringing together within and across firm reallocation along with labor market frictions, naturally accounts for the observed differences in worker flows and wages across firms of different sizes.

The availability and marginal costs of dependent employer-sponsored health insurance.

In this study, we examine differences by firm size in the availability of dependent coverage and the incremental cost of such coverage. We use data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey - Insurance Component (MEPS-IC) to show that among employees eligible for single coverage, dependent coverage was almost always available for employees in large firms (100 or more employees) but not in smaller firms, particularly those with fewer than 10 employees. In addition, when dependent coverage was available, eligible employees in smaller firms were more likely than employees in large firms to face two situations that represented the extremes of the incremental cost distribution: (1) they paid nothing for single or family coverage or (2) they paid nothing for single coverage but faced a high contribution for family coverage. These results suggest that firm size may be an important factor in policy assessments, such as analyses of the financial implications for families excluded from subsidized Marketplace coverage due to affordable offers of single coverage or of potential rollbacks to public coverage for children.

Using the critical incident technique to research decision making regarding access to training and development in medium-sized enterprises

Employees in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) form part of a ‘disadvantaged’ group within the workforce that receives less access to training and development (T&D) than employees in large firms. Prior research into reasons for the relatively low levels of employee participation in training and development has typically involved surveys of owner/manager opinions. A novel and potentially more fruitful line of inquiry is investigating decisions managers have actually made regarding employee access to T&D. Building on this idea, we describe how the critical incident technique (CIT) was applied in our exploratory study of managerial decision making regarding employee access to training and development in medium-sized enterprises. We also discuss lessons learned in conducting the study. These lessons are based on an analysis of our experiences of using the CIT and are potentially important for researchers who will be using the technique to study similar topics in the years ahead.

Development, social norms, and assignment to task

Economic development involves a structural transformation in the way people are allocated to tasks. There is a shift from self-provision to market exchange, facilitating specialization. There is also a shift from self-employment to wage employment in large firms and organizations, driven by innovation and increasing returns to scale. Changes in allocation mechanisms require changes in norms and attitudes. Because different labor assignment domains coexist, conflicts arise among norms that apply to different domains, possibly resulting in dysfunctional outcomes. I argue that religion, humanism, and schools have all played an important historical role in fostering the changes in social norms and attitudes that are needed to accompany structural changes in the way economies allocate workers to tasks.

Decision making regarding employee access to training and development in medium-sized enterprises: A proposed study employing the Critical Incident Technique

This paper outlines a proposed study employing the critical incident technique aimed at uncovering factors influencing owner-managers’ decisions when employees in medium-sized enterprises request access to external training and development opportunities. Employees in these enterprises form part of a ‘disadvantaged’ group within the workforce that receives less access to formal training and development than employees in large firms. The owner-manager’s decisional role is critical when considering employee access to training and development. Unfortunately, there is scant research into factors affecting owner-managers’ decisions regarding employee access to a requested development opportunity in medium-sized enterprises. To address this research gap, we intend to conduct semistructured interviews incorporating critical incidents with a sample of 20 owner-managers. We anticipate that the interviews will provide rich, nuanced and contextualized information on the decision-making role of owner-managers that can be analysed for key themes.1

Self-employment, Small Firms and Enterprise

For many months the British government has been trying to convince the nation that it wants to promote economic growth. The evidence suggests that the economic giants of the future are the very smallest firms of today. This being the case, no policy to increase growth can neglect obstacles that face the self-employed and small businesses. The self-employed and small businesses form a sector of the economy that is difficult to research and little understood. However, Peter Urwin, Director of the Centre for Employment Research at Westminster Business School, provides radical insights in this IEA publication. In particular he shows how the self-employed and employees of small firms have a very different profile from the employees of large firms. If we prevent small firms from flourishing we will cut off opportunities for large sectors of society who may struggle to find alternative employment. Furthermore, the nature of entrepreneurship is such that government policy can never identify successful firms in advance. The only option is to de-regulate business so that tomorrow’s successful firms are not strangled at birth. This publication is important reading for those who wish to understand a sector that employs nearly one third of the British workforce. It is also vital reading for those who wish to develop the policies that will liberate a culture of entrepreneurship within the UK.

Worker quality and labor market sorting

We test the hypothesis that labor market sorting into outcomes normally associated with wage premia (e.g. incentive pay coverage, urban dwelling, employment in large firms, marriage, and union coverage) is related to a series of non-standard worker “quality” measures.

Explaining the Desire for Local Bargaining: Evidence from a Finnish Survey of Employers and Employees

Abstract. This paper describes divergences in employers’ and employees’ opinions on the proper share of local bargaining in contract wage gains in Finland. Employers want the locally bargained wage share to be approximately half of the total wage rise, while the majority of employees would prefer this share to be in the region of 1–24 per cent. Employers in firms that are large, foreign owned or operate in the financial services industry desire the largest locally bargained share of contract wages. Employees in large firms, on the other hand, resist local bargaining. When the firm uses performance-related pay, employees would prefer a large role for local bargaining in contract wage gains.

A firm level analysis of trade, technology and employment in South Africa

AbstractThis paper uses two firm level surveys, the National Enterprise (NE) survey and the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Area (GJMA) survey, to explore the implications of globalization for employment in South Africa. These relationships are explored using cross‐tabulations and estimated labour demand functions. The paper finds that rising import penetration negatively affected employment in large firms, but not small firms. Relatively large declines in employment also occurred within export firms, despite improvements in export competitiveness and export growth through trade liberalization. Finally, the study finds that skill‐biased and trade‐induced technological change, as reflected in increased use of computers, foreign investment and the importation of raw material inputs, have raised the skill intensity of production. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

The Labour Market Potential for Scientists, Engineers and Managers in Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire

This paper examines the issue of the potential employability of the highly-skilled post-retirement from employment in large firms and research institutions in small high-tech firms. The thesis of the study reported here, funded by the Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire (MKOB) Learning and Skills Council (L &amp; SC), is that reemployment might help address problems of skill shortages in the MKOB region, particularly in its increasing number of hightech firms. Early retirement removes valuable skills from the labour market. The paper has a more general interest because it highlights the considerable challenges to policy makers faced with a diversity of employment profiles within regions.

The Hiring Decisions and Compensation Structures of Large Firms

This paper investigates differences between large and small firms in new hires' ages and in compensation structures. An analysis of data from the Benefits Supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS) shows that large firms hired younger workers than small firms and awarded starting wages that discriminated less between young and older workers. Most strikingly, the well-known wage premium associated with employment in large firms did not obtain for white-collar workers who were hired at age 35 or older, due to large firms' preference for younger new hires. Another finding is that wage growth in large firms equaled or exceeded that in small firms. The author argues that these findings accord with firm-specific human capital theory. Finally, limited evidence from the 1995 BLS Survey of Employer-Provided Training and the CPS suggests that industries that train more also hire younger workers.

The Hiring Decisions and Compensation Structures of Large Firms

This paper investigates differences between large and small firms in new hires' ages and in compensation structures. An analysis of data from the Benefits Supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS) shows that large firms hired younger workers than small firms and awarded starting wages that discriminated less between young and older workers. Most strikingly, the well-known wage premium associated with employment in large firms did not obtain for white-collar workers who were hired at age 35 or older, due to large firms' preference for younger new hires. Another finding is that wage growth in large firms equaled or exceeded that in small firms. The author argues that these findings accord with firm-specific human capital theory. Finally, limited evidence from the 1995 BLS Survey of Employer-Provided Training and the CPS suggests that industries that train more also hire younger workers.