Separating wheat and chaff: age-specific staffing strategies and innovative performance at the firm level

Den Weizen von der Spreu trennen: Altersbezogene Personalpolitik und Innovationen auf der Betriebsebene

Katharina Frosch, Christian Göbel and Thomas Zwick

No 11-047, ZEW Discussion Papers from ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Abstract: Adopting a dynamic perspective, this paper investigates age-related staffing patterns in German establishments and their effect on innovative performance. First, we investigate how establishments achieve the necessary workforce rejuvenation - from the inflow of younger or from outflows of older workers. In addition, we explore whether certain staffing patterns are more likely to appear under different economic regimes. In a second step, we analyse whether an establishment's innovative performance is related to the staffing patterns it experiences. The analysis of linked-employer-employee data shows that most of the 585 German establishments covered rejuvenate by inflows of younger workers. Half of the establishments also use the outflow of older workers. Furthermore, workforces are more likely to become more age-heterogeneous in growing establishments. Finally, we do not find evidence that a youth-centred human resource strategy (always) fosters innovation.

Keywords: Workforce aging; staffing strategies; innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 M51 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-bec, nep-hrm and nep-sbm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Journal Article: Separating wheat and chaff: age-specific staffing strategies and innovative performance at the firm level (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:zewdip:11047

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