Thomas Zwick

University of Wuerzburg | JMU · Faculty of Economics

We provide evidence that suggests that a reduction in outside wage options reduces wage increases in retained jobs. We use the natural experiment of a reform that reduced outside wage options for employees in deregulated crafts occupations in comparison to employees in not reformed crafts occupations. To avoid estimation biases from general reform...

Precocious inventors have a higher inventive productivity during their remaining career. Inventors who have their first patent either applied for extraordinarily fast or a first patent of especially high quality are regarded as precocious. This paper systematically includes individual and employer characteristics that can drive career productivity...

Early retirement options are usually targeted at employees at risk of not reaching their regular retirement age in employment. An important at-risk group comprises older employees who have worked in demanding jobs for many years. This group may be particularly negatively affected by the abolition of early retirement options. To measure differences...

We show that a stepwise increase in the normal retirement age (NRA) by up to five years and the introduction of actuarial pension deductions for retirement before NRA was ineffective in prolonging employment of older men after early retirement age. We argue that the ineffectiveness of the German pension reform resulted from a change in employer beh...

This paper assesses the impact of financial incentives on working after retirement. The empirical analysis is based on a large administrative individual career data set that includes information about 2% of all German employees subject to social security or in marginal employment until age 67 and their employers in the period 1975-2014. We use the...

This paper shows that labor demand plays an important role in the labor market reactions to a pension reform in Germany. Employers with a high share of older worker inflow compared with their younger worker inflow, employers in sectors with few investments in research and development, and employers in sectors with a high share of collective bargain...

This paper shows that inventors with an early patenting success have a higher inventive productivity during their remaining career. We use European patent data for a period of 32 years for 1240 German inventors. The patent data are linked with survey data that provide information on an extensive list of individual inventor characteristics and time...

The literature on wage bargaining so far mainly argues that unemployment benefits are relevant outside options for employees. This paper demonstrates that also a change in outside wage options drives wages in continuing jobs. We use the natural experiment of a crafts reform that reduces outside wage options for a clearly defined treatment group of...

This paper shows that young men who completed an apprenticeship education plus a tertiary vocational education have considerably higher earnings during the first half of their career than those who obtained an academic education in addition to their apprenticeship education. We match employees with a tertiary vocational and an academic education ba...

Employers sponsor general training if they can get an information advantage about the skills of trainees. This advantage might vanish if credible external institutions grade successful training completion. We argue that despite a certificate, training firms can retain an information advantage and can positively select training completers because th...

This paper analyses the effect of training participation on employees’ retention in the training establishment. On the basis of the human capital and monopsony theories the effect of portability, visibility, and credibility of training on employee retention is jointly calculated. We use an extensive German linked employer–employee panel data set wi...

We investigate how the demographic composition of the workforce along the sex, nationality, education, age and tenure dimensions affects job switches. Fitting duration models for workers’ job‐to‐job turnover rate that control for workplace fixed effects in a representative sample of large manufacturing plants in Germany during 1975–2016, we find th...

This paper analyses the effect of the economic crisis in the years 2008 and 2009 on individual training activities of different employee groups within establishments. We use a unique German linked employer–employee panel data set with detailed information on individual training history (WeLL-ADIAB). The so-called Great Recession can be seen as an e...

Die Arbeitsmärkte vor allem in westlichen Ländern stehen vor großen Herausforderungen durch den demografischen Wandel. Auch in Deutschland sind die Betriebe mit den Auswirkungen einer abnehmenden Bevölkerung und der alternden Gesellschaft konfrontiert (BMAS 2015). Einerseits ist der Anteil an älteren Beschäftigten in den letzten Jahren stark angest...

Die FDZ-Methodenreporte befassen sich mit den methodischen Aspekten der Daten des FDZ und hel-fen somit Nutzerinnen und Nutzern bei der Analyse der Daten. Nutzerinnen und Nutzer können hierzu in dieser Reihe zitationsfähig publizieren und stellen sich der öffentlichen Diskussion. FDZ-Methodenreporte (FDZ method reports) deal with methodical aspects...

A series of seminal papers argues that poaching hampers company-sponsored general training. Empirically, however, the existence and extent of poaching remain open questions. We provide a novel empirical strategy to identify poaching. We find that only few apprenticeship training firms in Germany are ‘poaching victims’ or ‘poaching raiders’. Victims...

Die FDZ-Methodenreporte befassen sich mit den methodischen Aspekten der Daten des FDZ und hel-fen somit Nutzerinnen und Nutzern bei der Analyse der Daten. Nutzerinnen und Nutzer können hierzu in dieser Reihe zitationsfähig publizieren und stellen sich der öffentlichen Diskussion. FDZ-Methodenreporte (FDZ method reports) deal with methodical aspects...

Most previous results on determinants of inventive performance are biased because inventive performance is measured with error. This measurement error causes attenuation bias. More specifically, for example age and education as drivers of patenting success have biased coefficients and too high standard errors when inventive performance is measured...

Based on an established theoretical framework of the drivers of inventive performance, the so-called KSAO (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Other) factors, this paper seeks to explain empirically the performance of inventors throughout their careers. We combine survey information spanning the inventors’ entire careers and psychometric test evidenc...

This report offers new insights into the drivers of inventor productivity at the individual level. It includes well-known drivers, such as inventor age and education, and controls for inventor team size, and firm/applicant information, as well as period and technology field effects derived from patent data. In addition, it adds inventor characteris...

The report focuses on résumé-based screening strategies for the recruitment of highly qualified research and development (R&D) workers (critical R&D workers) in high-tech firms. We investigate which kinds of professional background, job-related experience, motivations, specific skills, and previous inventive activity make a candidate attractive for...

This paper analyses the risk of unemployment, unemployment duration, and the risk of longterm unemployment immediately after apprenticeship graduation. Unemployed apprenticeship graduates constitute a large share of unemployed youth in Germany but unemployment incidence within this group is unequally distributed. Our paper extends previous research...

Purpose – Employees older than 55 years of age have a much lower share in training than other employees. The purpose of this paper is to propose that one of the reasons for this phenomenon that has not been taken into account so far is that their training is less effective. Design/methodology/approach – This paper shows that training of older empl...

This paper addresses the puzzle how employers that invest in general human capital can gain an information advantage with respect to the ability of their employees when training is certified by credible external institutions. We apply an established model from the employer-learning literature and distinguish between two ability dimensions: cognitiv...

The report focuses on resume-based screening strategies for the recruitment of highly qualified research and development (R&D) workers (critical R&D workers) in high-tech firms. We investigate which kinds of professional background, job-related experience, motivations, specific skills, and previous inventive activity make a candidate attractive for...

This report offers new insights into the drivers of inventor productivity at the individual level. It includes well-known drivers, such as inventor age and education, and controls for inventor team size, and firm/applicant information, as well as period and technology field effects derived from patent data. In addition, it adds inventor characteris...

Dieser Beitrag zeigt auf Basis einer Befragung von Führungskräften eines internationalen Konzerns, unter welchen Bedingungen eine erfolgsabhängige Vergü-tung einen positiven Motivationseffekt erzielen kann. Neben einer positiven Ent-wicklung der Bonusauszahlung können weitere Faktoren die Motivationswirkung des Vergütungssystems stärken. Hierzu zäh...

The rapid aging of the workforce in Germany threatens to undermine the competitiveness of enterprises mainly in two respects. The productivity of enterprises might decrease when relative productivity of old employees is lower than productivity of younger employees, and when employers cannot avoid an increase in the share of old employees. In additi...

In this study, we investigate the effect of five specific human resource measures for old employees (SMOE) on their relative productivity. Despite the fact that SMOE are applied in the majority of establishments, this is the first representative study on the effectiveness of these measures. We find that the relative productivity contributions of ol...

Using linked employer-employee panel data for Germany, this paper investigates whether firms implement real wage reductions in a selective manner. In line with insider-outsider and several strands of efficiency wage theory, we find strong evidence for selective wage cuts with high-productivity workers being spared even when controlling for permanen...

The relatively small average wage effects of employer and occupation changes after apprenticeship training mask large differences between occupation groups and apprentices with different schooling backgrounds. People who change employer and occupation within industrial occupations enjoy large wage advantages, whereas apprentices in commerce and tra...

We estimate the effects of hiring subsidies for older workers on transitions from unemployment to employment in Germany. Using a natural experiment, our first set of estimates is based on a legal change extending the group of eligible unemployed persons. A subsequent legal change in the opposite direction is used to validate these results. Our data...

This paper jointly analyses the consequences of adverse selection and signalling on entry wages of skilled employees. It uses German linked employer employee panel data (LIAB) and introduces a measure for relative productivity of skilled job applicants based on apprenticeship wages. It shows that post-apprenticeship employer changers are a negative...

The author examines seniority wage profiles in German establishments to discern hiring patterns with respect to age and sex. Using the country’s linked employer--employee dataset (LIAB) over the period 1997–2004 and calculating establishment seniority wage profiles directly from individual seniority wages, he finds that establishments with steeper...

This paper measures determinants of individual academic achievements. In addition to an extensive list of individual characteristics, skills obtained during study and socio-economic background factors, many dimensions of selectivity into academic study subjects are shown to drive individual academic achievement, such as differences between average...

Why do employers pay seniority wages? The principal-agent theory stresses that employers might want to retain and motivate their employees by paying them a low entry wage and higher wage increases with longer tenure rather than productivity development. This contribution tests the empirical relevance of this seniority wage interpretation on the bas...

This paper shows that after older workers experience periods of non-employment, earnings losses increase. Before non-employment, older employees have relatively higher earnings compared to younger employees without employment interruptions. This earnings advantage turns into a strong earnings disadvantage shortly before, and for a long time after,...

A representative linked employer–employee panel and an innovative two-step estimation strategy are used to show that large and profitable establishments as well as establishments with a highly qualified workforce pay high seniority wages. Also collective bargaining coverage, works councils and reduced working time for older employees are positively...

Adopting a dynamic perspective, this paper investigates age-related staffing patterns in German establishments and their effect on innovative performance. First, we investigate how establishments achieve the necessary workforce rejuvenation—from the inflow of younger or from outflows of older workers. In addition, we explore whether certain staffin...

In most industrialised countries, the workforce is ageing rapidly. If ageing workforces affect sectors differently, the total impact of ageing will depend on the industrial structure of an economy. This paper measures the impact of changes in the age structure of establishments on productivity using representative linked employer–employee panel dat...

This paper shows that training of older employees is less effective. Training effectiveness is measured with respect to key dimensions such as career development, earnings, adoption of new skills, flexibility or job security. Older employees also pursue less ambitious goals with their training participation. An important reason for these difference...

Weshalb bezahlen Arbeitgeber Löhne, die mit der Betriebszugehörigkeit steigen? Die Prinzipal-Agent-Theorie betont, dass Arbeitgeber ihre Beschäftigten an sich binden und motivieren wollen, indem sie ihnen einen relativ niedrigen Einstiegslohn sowie im Laufe der Betriebszugehörigkeit stärker steigende Löhne bezahlen, als dies deren steigende Produkt...

Why do employers pay seniority wages? The principal-agent theory stresses that employers might want to keep and motivate their employees by paying them a low entry wage and wage increases with tenure, although this may not be justified by their productivity development. This contribution tests the empirical relevance of this seniority wage interpre...

Adopting a dynamic perspective, this paper investigates age-related staffing patterns in German establishments and their effect on innovative performance. First, we investigate how establishments achieve the necessary workforce rejuvenation—from the inflow of younger or from outflows of older workers. In addition, we explore whether certain staffin...

A series of seminal theoretical papers argues that poaching of employees may hamper compa-ny-sponsored general training like apprenticeship training in Germany. Empirically however, the existence and extent of poaching still remains an open question. We provide a novel empirical strategy to identify poaching and investigate its causes and consequen...

Ammermüller A., Lucifora C., Origo F. and Zwick T. Wage flexibility in regional labour markets: evidence from Italy and Germany, Regional Studies. This paper investigates the functioning of regional labour markets in Italy and Germany for different employee groups and regions. It derives theoretical hypotheses on group-specific correlations between...

This paper demonstrates that the share of apprentices exhibits a relatively strong seasonal pattern. This means that statistics on the share of apprentices such as those presented in official publications differ substantially from the actual yearly mean if they are measured on a date close to the minimum (end of July) or the maximum (around the tur...

Die Validität betriebswirtschaftlicher Theorien und Hypothesen kann zunehmend mit repräsentativen und umfangreichen Datensätzen überprüft werden, die erst seit kurzem verfügbar sind. Hierbei stehen insbesondere Panel- und verknüpfte Mikrodatensätze (d.h. Daten über einzelne Unternehmen oder Individuen über die Zeit bzw. Daten mit einem Identifikati...

This paper characterises establishments that pay higher seniority wages than their competitors. It tests whether seniority wages are paid on the basis of agency, human capital or efficiency wage considerations. A representative linked employeremployee panel and an innovative two-step estimation strategy are used to first calculate individual senior...

In most Western, industrialised countries the workforce is ageing rapidly. In order to assess the possible consequences of an ageing workforce, this paper measures the impact of changes in the age structure of establishments on productivity using representative linked employer-employee panel data. We take into account that the levels as well as the...

Productivity growth in virtually all west European countries exceeded that of the United States throughout the period 1950 to 1995. Since then American productivity performance has strengthened and that of the EU has weakened. The most important reason is contrasting experiences with Information and Communications Technology (ICT). The article argu...

Employee involvement and financial incentives are often praised as effective means for increasing firm productivity. We assess the productivity effects of these human resource practices by accounting for the main sources of estimation bias – unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity – and by using representative establishment panel data for Germany....

This paper analyses the impact of increasing the share of apprentices at the cost of the share of unskilled or semi-skilled employees on establishment performance. We use representative matched employer–employee panel data and correct for estimation biases. We show that an increase of the apprentice share in trade, commercial, craft or construction...

Apprentices cause high costs for training firms, while it remains unclear if their productivity during the training period offsets these costs. To give an answer, this paper tests the hypothesis that firms have to re-earn net costs by paying their former apprentices a lower wage in comparison to skilled employees hired from the labor market. We ana...

This paper combines two strains of the literature on the employment effects of deferred compensation. The first strain separates seniority and job matching wage effects on the basis of individual data, but cannot look at employment consequences. The second strain explains the employment structure on the basis of establishment data, but cannot prope...

While a positive link between information and communication technology (ICT) and firm performance is well documented, the exact channel remains unclear. We propose an innovative link: ICT fosters product and process innovations by facilitating employee participation and outsourcing. Employee participation is enhanced by horizontal employee communic...

There has been a renewed interest in monopsony in labor markets in recent years that includes both the traditional static approach to monopsony, ably reviewed by Boal and Ransom (1997) and the new'' approach to monopsony with more attention paid to dynamic issues, developed in detail by Manning (2003). The papers presented in this supplement highli...

This paper investigates the short-term costs and benefits of apprenticeship training in Germany. It calls into question the popular stylised fact that apprenticeship training always leads to net costs during the apprenticeship period. We analyse the impact of the proportion of different occupational groups of apprentices on firm performance. We use...

This paper provides the first comprehensive examination of the effect of German works councils on wages, using matched employer-employee data from the German LIAB for 2001. We find that works councils are associated with higher earnings: the wage premium is around 11 percent, and is higher under formal collective bargaining. This result persists af...

Purpose This paper aims to analyze the leadership role of first‐line managers in self‐managed production units, particularly the existence, relevance and closability of competence gaps. Design/methodology/approach Self‐assessments on competence and other variables shed light on the first‐line managers' situation; a quasi‐experiment investigates th...

This paper investigates the functioning of regional labour markets in Italy and Germany for different employee groups. In the light of high and persistent differences in unemployment and wage rates between the North and South of Italy and the West and East of Germany, we first derive theoretical hypotheses on group specific correlations between reg...

For micro-datasets considered for release as scientific or public use files, statistical agencies have to face the dilemma of guaranteeing the confidentiality of survey respondents on the one hand and offering sufficiently detailed data on the other hand. For that reason, a variety of methods to guarantee disclosure control is discussed in the lite...

We estimate the effects of hiring subsidies for older workers on transitions from unemployment to employment in Germany. Using a natural experiment, our first set of estimates is based on a legal change extending the group of eligible unemployed persons. A subsequent legal change in the opposite direction is used to validate these results. Our data...

"The German dual apprenticeship system has come under pressure in recent years because enterprises have not been willing to provide a sufficient number of apprenticeship positions. An argument that is frequently put forward is that the gap could be closed if more firms were willing to incur net costs during the training period. This paper investiga...

Aggregate unemployment may affect individual returns to education through qualification-specific responses in participation and wage bargaining. This paper shows that an increase in regional unemployment by 1% decreases returns to education by 0.005 percentage points. This implies that higher skilled employees are better sheltered from labour marke...