Employee Financial Participation and Productivity: An Empirical Reappraisal

Avner Ben‐Ner and Derek Jones cast doubt on the notion of a simple causal link between financial participation (FP) and productivity, and consequently on the validity of much of the empirical literature that has sought to quantify this relationship. This paper is an attempt to investigate this proposition. Our empirical reappraisal revealed that the route through which employee share ownership and profit‐sharing schemes achieve these gains is quite separate and more involved than either the theory or prior empirical research suggests. This is particularly evident by extending the complementarities thesis beyond purely participatory bundles to embrace firm‐specific and organizational variables. Our analysis also addressed recent calls to aid the interpretation of the observed effects of FP by creating a link between the use and operation of FP and its impact on productivity.     

Did bank distress stifle innovation during the Great Depression?

We find a negative relationship between bank distress and the level, quality and trajectory of firm-level innovation during the Great Depression, particularly for R&D firms operating in capital intensive industries. However, we also show that because a sufficient number of R&D intensive firms were located in counties with lower levels of bank distress, or were operating in less capital intensive industries, the negative effects were mitigated in aggregate. Although Depression era bank distress was associated with the stifling of innovation, our results also help to explain why technological development was still robust following one of the largest shocks in the history of the U.S. banking system.     

Manufacturing output and extreme temperature: Evidence from Canada

This paper analyzes the effects of extreme temperature on manufacturing output using a data set covering the universe of manufacturing establishments in Canada from 2004 to 2012. Extreme temperature can affect manufacturing activity directly through its impact on labour productivity and indirectly through a change in demand for products. Using a panel fixed effects method, our results suggest a non-linear relationship between outdoor extreme temperature and manufacturing output. Each day where outdoor mean temperatures are below $-18$ °C or above 24 °C reduces annual manufacturing output by 0.18% and 0.11%, respectively, relative to a day with mean temperature between 12 ° and 18 °C. In a typical year, extreme temperatures, as measured by the number of days below $-18$ °C or above 24 °C, reduce annual manufacturing output by 2.2%, with extreme hot temperatures contributing the most to this impact. Given the predicted change in climate for the mid- and end of century, we predict annual manufacturing output losses due to extreme temperature to range between 2.8% and 3.7% in mid-century and 3.7% and 7.2% in end of century.