ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE,SKILL FORMATION,HUMAN CAPITAL MEASUREMENT: EVIDENCE FROM ITALIAN MANUFACTURING FIRMS

Abstract This paper emphasizes the role of labour demand as a determinant of human capital formation. After a section in which the alternative conceptions on the functioning of labour markets are presented and different ways of measuring human capital are compared, an applied analysis is carried out in which we provide a labour‐demand‐oriented measure of human capital, as defined by the amount of specific skills firms generate through work‐based training (WBT) activities. By merging three rich firm‐level datasets, we estimate the impact of a set of variables supposed to affect both the propensity to invest in WBT and the intensity of training within the Italian manufacturing industry over the period 2001–2005. Special attention is devoted to the variables characterizing within‐firm organization of knowledge, organizational change and the formation of competence pipelines: among them, innovation, internationalization commitment, out‐sourcing and new hirings. The estimates show that the effect of innovation on WBT is higher when the introduction of new technologies is supported by organizational innovations. When looking at the nature of WBT, we investigate the different determinants of the firms' propensity to provide both in‐house and outside training. We measure training intensity in terms, respectively, of the number of provided training activities, private and total training costs and share of trainees.     

Restructuring hospital industry to control public health care expenditure: The role of input substitutability

In this paper we investigate the economic rationality of the bed downsizing process, characterising the hospital industry worldwide in the last decades, as a measure to control public health care expenditure. Considering a sample of Italian hospitals, we provide fresh evidence on the factor substitutability in the production of hospital services. Differently from other studies, based on North-American data and limited to pre-determined cost function models, we estimate a general specification (the Generalised Composite), and test it against traditional nested models (e.g. the Translog). For all the specifications we derive Allen, Morishima and Shadow elasticities of substitution between input pairs, obtaining a fairly consistent picture across all models and elasticity concepts. In particular, our results highlight a very limited degree of substitutability between factors in the production of hospital services, especially between beds and medical staff. These findings suggest that a restructuring policy of the hospital industry, which is confined to reducing the number of beds without involving workforce management, could not be a viable strategy for controlling public health care expenditure.     

Heterogeneity of customers of personal image services: a segmentation based on value co-creation

The aim of this work is to gain an understanding of the heterogeneity of the customers of service firms dedicated to personal care. This comes from their participation in the value co-creation process. We later analyze if the distribution of the satisfaction variable is the same between the previously-identified groups. This analysis is carried out via a latent class segmentation. The empirical research data was obtained from a sample of users of firms from the Spanish sector of hairdressing and aesthetics. This is mostly made up of young, self-employed entrepreneurs and microenterprises. 547 questionnaires were correctly completed and included in the study. The use of the customers’ involvement in value co-creating as a segmentation criteria resulted in the users being put into two groups. It was thus verified that there are differences in the distribution of the satisfaction variable between the two groups studied. The main contribution of the study stems from considering the value co-creation behavior as a valid criterion for the segmentation of customers of aesthetics and personal care services. This facilitates the decision-making related to the marketing policies of the firms in the sector.     

Unemployment and inflation persistence in Spain: Are there Phillips trade-offs?

This paper studies the dynamic behavior of inflation and unemployment in Spain during the period 1964–1997. In particular, we analyze the implications of high persistence in both unemployment and inflation dynamics for inference regarding the size of Phillips trade-offs and sacrifice ratios in the Spanish economy, in response to a demand shock. To do so we use a Stuctural VAR approach with several identification outlines which give rise to alternative interpretations of the joint unemployment-inflation dynamics. When using a bivariate VAR we cannot reject the existence of a permanent output loss of one-half of one percentage point for each percentage point of permanent disinflation. However, when the VAR is augmented with a third variable, in order to disentangle monetary from non-monetary shocks within the demand class, the evidence favours a lower and marginally permanent trade-off with an output loss of about one-fourth of one percentage point.     

Money demand stability: Evidence from Spain

Using several tests for structural stability in regressions with I(1) variables and for the existence of cointegration in models with regime shifts, the empirical evidence on the existence of a structural break in the Spanish long-run demand for broad money (ALP2) is analysed.The results indicate that shifts affecting the demand for ALP2 in recent years have substantially altered its long-run properties. As to the cause of this structural break, emphasis is placed on the role played by the increasing openness of the Spanish financial system to international markets as obstacles to free capital movements have progressively disappeared.This paper represents the views of the author and should not be interpreted as reflecting those of any institution. I am grateful to J. Ayuso, J. J. Dolado, F. Restoy and two anonymous referees for helpful comments. The data may be obtained from the internet, http://wotan.wiwi.hu-berlin.de/oekonometric/engl/data.html. This paper was written while the author was working at the Banco de España.     

Human capital effects on labour productivity in EU regions

Recent years have seen a wealth of articles on spatial effects in empirical growth specifications. Endogenous growth models, together with the arguments of the new economic geography, have led to spatial dependence being identified with the existence of externalities which cross regional borders. This article continues in this line of research and offers new empirical evidence on the contribution of human capital and agglomeration economies to the differences in productivity in European Union regions. The article uses the spatial Durbin model with different weight matrices to explain the relation between human capital variables and labour productivity, with the advantage that it allows the effects of spatial externalities associated to human capital and agglomeration economies to be quantified.