Management,productivity, and technology choices: evidence from U.S. mining schools

A key difference between managers and other production inputs is that managers choose the other inputs. Modelling management as a Hicks-neutral productivity shifter, which is a common practice, omits the productivity returns from these input decisions. I illustrate this through a historical episode in which technology choices were important and managers plausibly influenced those choices. I study the entry of the first mining college graduates into coal mine management positions in Pennsylvania. Whereas the Hicks-neutral productivity effect of these managers was negative and not significantly different from zero, their indirect productivity effect through electrical locomotive adoption was 3% on average.