Barr and Serneels: Reciprocity in the Workplace
Abstract: Using combined experimental and survey data, this paper provides empirical evidence that firm productivity is related to worker’s pro-social behavior in the workplace. At the firm level, we find a strong positive relationship between firm productivity and reciprocating behavior among workers. Investigating workers’ individual behavior we find a similar, strong relationship when regressing earnings, a proxy for productivity, on reciprocity. To address simultaneity we use an instrumental variable approach and find that the initial estimate was upwards biased, presumably because it did not take into account the positive feedback from earnings to reciprocity. The new coefficient remains substantially above zero, but it is statistically insignificant.
Kruger: Productivity and Structural Change: A Review of the Literature
Abstract. This paper is a survey of the existing research on structural change at various levels of aggregation with a special focus on the relation to productivity and technological change. The exposition covers the research concerning the development of the three main sectors of the private economy, multisector growth models and recent evolutionary theories of structural change. Empirical studies of the reallocation of market or sector shares as a result of differential productivity developments are also discussed. The synthesis emphasizes the crucial interaction of supply- and demand-side forces in shaping structural change.
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Luttmer: Selection, Growth, and the Size Distribution of Firms
Abstract.This paper describes an analytically tractable model of balanced growth that is consistent with the observed size distribution of firms. Growth is the result of idiosyncratic firm productivity improvements, selection of successful firms, and imitation by entrants. Selection tends to improve aggregate productivity at a fast rate if entry and imitation are easy. The empirical phenomenon of Zipf's law can be interpreted to mean that entry costs are high or that imitation is difficult, or both. The small size of entrants indicates that imitation must be difficult. A calibration based on U. S. data suggests that about half of output growth can be attributed to selection. But the implied variance of the combined preference and technology shocks is puzzlingly high.