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Reaching for the Stars: Who Pays for Talent in Innovative Industries?

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Author Info
Fredrik Andersson
Matthew Freedman
John C. Haltiwanger
Julia Lane
Kathryn L. Shaw

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Abstract

Innovation in the U.S. economy is about employing and rewarding highly talented workers to produce new products. Using unique longitudinal matched employer-employee data, this paper makes a key connection between talent and firms in markets with risky product innovations. We show that software firms that operate in product markets with highly skewed returns to innovation, or high variance payoffs, are more likely to attract and pay for star workers. Thus, firms in high variance product markets pay more up-front—in starting salaries—to attract and motivate star employees, because if these star workers produce home-run innovations, the firm’s winnings will be huge. However, we also find these same firms pay highly for loyalty: star workers that stay with a firm have much higher earnings in firms with high variance product market payoffs. The large effects on earnings are robust to the inclusion of a wide range of controls for both workers and firm characteristics. One key control is that we also show that in firms that have actually hit home runs, with high revenues, the rewards for star talent are even greater. We also find that the dispersion of earnings is higher within firms with high variance product payoffs.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 12435.

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Date of creation: Aug 2006
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12435

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior
L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software

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References listed on IDEAS
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Edward P. Lazear & Kathryn L. Shaw, 2007. "Personnel Economics: The Economist's View of Human Resources," NBER Working Papers 13653, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. B. Atrostic, 2008. "Measuring U.S. innovative activity: business data at the U.S. Census Bureau," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 153-171, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Xavier Gabaix & Augustin Landier, 2006. "Why Has CEO Pay Increased So Much?," NBER Working Papers 12365, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Leonard I. Nakamura, 2008. "Intangible assets and national income accounting," Working Papers 08-23, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. [Downloadable!]
  5. N. Lacetera & L. Zirulia, 2008. "Knowledge Spillovers, Competition, and R&D Incentive Contracts," Working Papers 624, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna. [Downloadable!]
  6. Jonathan L. Willis & Julie Wroblewski, 2007. "What happened to the gains from strong productivity growth?," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, issue Q I, pages 5-23. [Downloadable!]
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