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Local Human Capital Externalities and Wages at the Firm Level: The Case of Italian Manufacturing

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  • Bratti, Massimiliano

    (Università degli Studi di Milano)

  • Leombruni, Roberto

    (University of Turin)

Abstract

We use a unique firm-level data set merging administrative information on average wages paid by firms by skill level (blue collars and white collars), Population Census information on the local stock of human capital available to firms and survey information on firm characteristics to investigate the existence and magnitude of local human capital externalities in Italian Manufacturing. The latter represents an interesting case study due to the prevalence of small family business and a technological lag with respect to the US, to which most evidence supporting local human capital spillovers refers. Our estimates show that in Italy, like in the US, firms located in geographical areas with a higher stock of human capital pay higher wages. This evidence is robust to many variants of the econometric specification and to addressing potential endogeneity issues using instrumental variables estimation and instruments based on the lagged expansion of the Italian higher education system and the lagged demographic structure.

Suggested Citation

  • Bratti, Massimiliano & Leombruni, Roberto, 2009. "Local Human Capital Externalities and Wages at the Firm Level: The Case of Italian Manufacturing," IZA Discussion Papers 4613, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4613
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    2. Thomas K. Bauer & Matthias Vorell, 2010. "External Eff ects of Education: Human Capital Spillovers in Regions and Firms," Ruhr Economic Papers 0195, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    3. Uschi Backes-Gellner & Christian Rupietta & Simone N. Tuor Sartore, 2017. "Reverse educational spillovers at the firm level," Evidence-based HRM, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 5(1), pages 80-106, April.
    4. Justin Doran & Bernard Fingleton, 2016. "Employment Resilience in Europe and the 2008 Economic Crisis: Insights from Micro-Level Data," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(4), pages 644-656, April.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    wages; firm; local human capital externalities; Italy; manufacturing;
    All these keywords.

    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
    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General

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