Employer-Provided Benefit Plans, Workforce Composition and Firm Outcomes

Anja Decressin, Julia Lane, Kristin McCue and Martha Stinson

Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics Technical Papers from Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau

Abstract: What do firms gain by offering benefits? Economists have proposed two payoffs: (i) benefits may be a more cost-effective form of compensation than wages for employees facing high marginal tax rates, and (ii) benefits may attract a more stable, skilled workforce. Both should improve firm outcomes, but we have little evidence on this matter. This paper exploits a rich new dataset to examine how firm productivity and survival are related to benefit offering, and finds that benefit-offering firms have higher productivity and higher survival rates. Differences in firm and workforce characteristics explain some but not all of the differences in outcomes.

Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2005-01
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cen:tpaper:2005-01

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