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When labour market rigidities are useful for innovation. Evidence from German IAB firm-level data

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  • Hoxha, Sergei
  • Kleinknecht, Alfred

Abstract

Supply-side economists made numerous pleas for removing labour market rigidities through ‘structural reforms’. From a Schumpeterian viewpoint, however, one can argue that labour market rigidities create useful incentives for innovation. Our estimates on German panel data (2007–2015) support the Schumpeterian view. Using the taxonomy of industries by Peneder (2010) we find that evidence of the Schumpeterian view is particularly strong in R&D intensive manufacturing industries, as well as in service industries with high degrees of cumulativeness of knowledge. Evidence of the Schumpeterian view is weaker in low-technology industries and in start-ups when firms rely more on generally available knowledge rather than on firm-specific and tacit knowledge accumulated in the past.

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  • Hoxha, Sergei & Kleinknecht, Alfred, 2020. "When labour market rigidities are useful for innovation. Evidence from German IAB firm-level data," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(7).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:49:y:2020:i:7:s004873332030144x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2020.104066
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    4. Claudius Gräbner & Anna Hornykewycz, 2022. "Capability accumulation and product innovation: an agent-based perspective," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 87-121, January.
    5. Igor Fedotenkov & Virmantas Kvedaras & Miguel Sanchez-Martinez, 2024. "Employment protection and labour productivity growth in the EU: skill-specific effects during and after the Great Recession," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 51(1), pages 209-262, February.
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    7. Cirillo, Valeria & Fanti, Lucrezia & Mina, Andrea & Ricci, Andrea, 2023. "The adoption of digital technologies: Investment, skills, work organisation," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 89-105.
    8. Taymaz, Erol & Voyvoda, Ebru & Yilmaz, Kamil, 2024. "Is there a virtuous cycle between wages and productivity? Turkish experience after the transition to democracy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    9. F. Landini & C. Franco, 2020. "Organizational Drivers of Innovation: The Role of Workforce Agility," Economics Department Working Papers 2020-EP01, Department of Economics, Parma University (Italy).
    10. Jasmin Joecks & Kerstin Pull & Katrin Scharfenkamp, 2023. "Women directors and firm innovation: The role of women directors' representative function," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(2), pages 1203-1214, March.
    11. Franco, Chiara & Landini, Fabio, 2022. "Organizational drivers of innovation: The role of workforce agility," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(2).
    12. Yu Liu & Mingde Jia, 2023. "The Impact of Population Aging on Green Innovation: An Empirical Analysis Based on Inter-Provincial Data in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-18, February.
    13. Deborah Giustini, 2021. "The Impact Of Labour Market Trends On The Employment Of R&D Personnel: A Literature Review," HSE Working papers WP BRP 117/STI/2021, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    14. Valeria Cirillo & Lucrezia Fanti & Andrea Mina & Andrea Ricci, 2021. "Digitalizing Firms: Skills, Work Organization and the Adoption of New Enabling Technologies," LEM Papers Series 2021/04, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    15. Mehmet Güney Celbiş & Pui-Hang Wong & Karima Kourtit & Peter Nijkamp, 2021. "Innovativeness, Work Flexibility, and Place Characteristics: A Spatial Econometric and Machine Learning Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-29, December.
    16. Tan, Youchao & Liu, Xiumei & Sun, Hanwen & Zeng, Cheng(Colin), 2022. "Population ageing, labour market rigidity and corporate innovation: Evidence from China," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(2).
    17. Mario Pianta & Jelena Reljic, 2022. "The good jobs-high innovation virtuous circle," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 39(3), pages 783-811, October.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Innovation; Labour market flexibility; Varieties of capitalism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J53 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Labor-Management Relations; Industrial Jurisprudence
    • M54 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Labor Management
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

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