Firm Productivity Growth and the Knowledge of New Workers

Michael Kirker and Lynda Sanderson

No 22/01, Treasury Working Paper Series from New Zealand Treasury

Abstract: Linked employer-employee data from New Zealand is used to study the relationship between a firm’s productivity growth and its exposure to outside knowledge through the hiring of new workers with previous work experience. The estimated relationship between productivity growth and hiring is compared to the predictions implied by two different channels: worker quality and knowledge spillover. Although it is not possible to identify a causal relationship, the productivity of a worker’s previous employer is correlated with subsequent productivity growth at the hiring firm. The patterns of this correlation are consistent with both the worker quality and knowledge spillover channels operating simultaneously. Furthermore, if knowledge spillover is occurring, the results suggest the type of knowledge spilling over relates to technological knowledge allowing firms to become more capital intensive, rather than knowledge that improves the efficiency of utilising existing inputs.

Keywords: productivity; labour mobility; human capital; knowledge diffusion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D24 J24 J62 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2022-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-cse, nep-cwa, nep-eff, nep-hrm, nep-knm, nep-lma, nep-sbm and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.treasury.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2022-03/twp22-01.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nzt:nztwps:22/01

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Treasury Working Paper Series from New Zealand Treasury New Zealand Treasury, PO Box 3724, Wellington 6140, New Zealand. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CSS I&T Web & Publishing, The Treasury ().