The relative importance of human resource management practices for innovation

Human resource management (HRM) practices are generally expected to stimulate a firm's innovation performance. However, which of these practices really pay off? Based on a unique dataset that includes detailed information for both a firm's innovation activities and a broad set of HRM practices, we find that primarily new workplace organization practices seem to enhance a firm's innovation activities. Flexible practices of working time management and incentive payment schemes show only small effects on both innovation propensity and innovation success. Further training does only affect innovation success, but not innovation propensity. Overall, we find a stronger linkage between HRM practices and innovation propensity than with innovation success. Further, we find that innovation propensity increases, first, with the number of combinations of HRM practices adopted by a firm but not with the number of combinations of HRM practices from different groups of HRM practices adopted by a firm.     

Using the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions to assess innovation policy

In recent years a growing literature on socio-technical transitions towards sustainability has emerged. Scholars have explored ways through which configurations of technologies, infrastructures, social practices, institutions and markets can change to fulfil their functions in a more sustainable way. A multi-level perspective (MLP) has been developed to describe and analyse these complex, long-term processes. It has also been used to help design policy for example in the Netherlands. In this paper the MLP is used in a novel way: as a heuristic to ex ante assess policies to stimulate socio-technical transitions. Instead of using it for policy development, the MLP is used here for an assessment of policy. The analysis focuses on a particular policy initiative intended to stimulate the transition to a low carbon economy in the UK: the Carbon Trust. This paper makes two contributions to the socio-technical transitions literature: Conceptually, the paper demonstrates the usefulness of the socio-technical multi-level perspective to analyse policies and assess their likely impact ex ante against the background of theorising about the patterns of large scale, socio-technical change. Empirically, the paper finds that the activities of the Carbon Trust consist of a variety of well targeted ways to stimulate the development of socio-technical niches as well as to change regime practices directly. Nevertheless, the paper argues that this model also faces difficulties in promoting a transition towards a low carbon economy.     

The internal impact of a customs union; Baden and the Zollverein

Tariffs can affect the growth of states. But how do they affect regional growth within states? Using Baden's 1836 entry into the Zollverein, the customs union of German states, I investigate the internal impact of a change in tariffs. With a new data set of regional employment data I demonstrate that the Zollverein had a substantial positive effect. Two market access effects are shown, one follows the standard market access predictions and the second triggers the direct investment by Swiss entrepreneurs in German regions close to their home base. Furthermore occupational change within the crafts sector was shifting labour towards higher taxed occupations and towards the region close to Switzerland.     

Disparitäten in der Entwicklung der Gemeindesteuern

Generally, taxes are the most relevant source of revenue for German municipalities. In the period from 2004 to 2014, tax revenues were growing at remarkable rates. However, statistical analyses show that not all municipalities were benefitting in the same way, and thus state-wide averages are of limited value, since they tend to whitewash inner-state inequality. Disparities are even significant in states with strong economic fundamentals. According to absolute measures, disparities are growing at the national level. This can be explained by a few tax-strong outliers. In contrast, relative inequality remains static. The alarming finding is that intertemporal mobility among municipalities in the allocation of tax revenues is limited, and thus tax-weak municipalities face a cloudy outlook.     

Structural sign patterns and reduced form restrictions

This paper reconsiders the degree to which the sign patterns of hypothesized structural arrays limit the possible outcomes for the sign pattern of the corresponding estimated reduced form. The conditions under which any structural restrictions would apply were believed to be very narrow, rarely found to apply, and virtually never investigated. As a result, current practice does not test the structural hypothesis in terms of the comparison of the estimated reduced form and the permissible reduced form sign patterns. This paper shows that such tests are always possible. Namely, that the sign patterns of the hypothesized structural arrays always limit the sign patterns that can be taken on by the estimated reduced form. Given this, it is always possible to falsify a structural hypothesis based only upon the sign pattern proposed. Necessary conditions, algorithmic principles, and examples are provided to illustrate the analytic principle and the means of its application.