Labour mobility, related variety and the performance of plants: A Swedish study

Ron Boschma (), Rikard Eriksson () and Urban Lindgren ()

No 809, Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) from Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography

Abstract: This paper analyses the impact of skill portfolios and labour mobility on plant performance by means of a unique database that connects attributes of individuals to features of plants for the whole Swedish economy. We found that a portfolio of related competences at the plant level increases significantly productivity growth of plants, in contrast to plant portfolios consisting of either similar or unrelated competences. Based on the analysis of 101,093 job moves, we found that inflows of skills that are related to the existing knowledge base of the plant had a positive effect on plant performance, while the inflow of new employees with skills that are already present in the plant had a negative impact. Our analyses show that inflows of unrelated skills only contribute positively to plant performance when these are recruited in the same region. Labour mobility across regions only has a positive effect on productivity growth of plants when this concerns new employees with related skills.

Keywords: labour mobility; related variety; skill portfolio; plant performance; geographical proximity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O18 R11 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 pages
Date: 2008-05, Revised 2008-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-eff, nep-geo, nep-knm, nep-lab and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:egu:wpaper:0809

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