The impact of a culturally diverse workforce on firms’ market size: An empirical investigation on Germany

Stephan Brunow and Peter Nijkamp

No 2012022, Norface Discussion Paper Series from Norface Research Programme on Migration, Department of Economics, University College London

Abstract: There is evidence from the literature that firms enjoy higher productivity levels when the workforce employed is culturally more diverse. It is an open question whether this gain is utilized to shift the supply curve and set lower prices, in order to achieve a higher demand and possibly higher revenues. This knowledge gap is not addressed in the existing literature, and forms the departure of our research. We introduce a reduced-form model, inspired by the study of Melitz and Ottaviano (2008) on heterogeneous firms, and add labour productivity by using the approach of Ottaviano and Peri (2005) on cultural diversity. In our empirical study, we employ German data, while the field of research is conducted for single plants, and industry-specific effects are taken into account. Our analysis shows significant positive effects of the cultural diversity of the high-skilled workforce on the market size of single establishments. We conclude that emerging productivity gains are not just paid as dividend or factor rewards but are also used to set lower prices in order to achieve higher demand.

Keywords: cultural diversity; firm heterogeneity; market size (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 L11 L25 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-dem, nep-eff and nep-eur
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Working Paper: The Impact of a Culturally Diverse Workforce on Firms' Market Size: An Empirical Investigation on Germany (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nor:wpaper:2012022

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