Cognitive Ability and Employee Mobility: Evidence from Swedish Microdata

Tobias Kretschmer, Pooyan Khashabi, Ali Mohammadi and Joseph Raffiee

No 15265, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: Cognitive ability and intelligence have been highlighted as the primary personnel measures used for hiring decisions, and gurus and popular business outlets consistently recommend that managers hire people smarter than themselves. However, the sustainability of such hiring strategies with respect to employee retention has not been fully investigated, largely due to data constraints. In this research note, we examine the relationship between cognitive ability and employee mobility, taking advantage of unique microdata from Sweden. Our empirical results show that higher cognitive ability is negatively associated with turnover, implying that cognitively-gifted employees settle with better employment options internally, compared to the external labor market. Nevertheless, when the employee has a significantly higher cognitive ability than their manager , employees are more likely to the firm. The results shed light on the relationship between cognitive ability and mobility, and highlight the role of managers for the success of hiring strategies based on cognitive ability.

Keywords: Cognitive ability; Employee mobility; Cognitive distance; Managers; Retention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-hrm, nep-neu and nep-ure
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