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Vertical Educational Diversity and Innovation Performance

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Abstract

This paper uses panel data of Swiss firms to analyze the impact of education-level diversity in the workforce on innovation performance, addressing endogeneity by exploiting within-firm variation as well as variation in labor supply across regions. We find that vertical educational diversity increases the extensive margin of R&D and product innovation, particularly new product innovation. However, the relationship with process innovation, R&D intensity, and product innovation intensity is insignificant or even negative. These results are in line with the idea that vertical educational diversity enhances the creative moment of the invention phase, while it might affect the commercialization phase negatively due to the dominance of coordination and communication costs relative to the gains in creativity.

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  • Thomas Bolli & Ursula Renold & Martin Woerter, 2015. "Vertical Educational Diversity and Innovation Performance," KOF Working papers 15-395, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    • Handle: RePEc:kof:wpskof:15-395
    DOI: 10.3929/ethz-a-010692089
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    1. Christian Rupietta & Uschi Backes-Gellner, 2019. "How firms’ participation in apprenticeship training fosters knowledge diffusion and innovation," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 89(5), pages 569-597, July.
    2. Regina Dionisius & Samuel Muehlemann & Harald Pfeifer & Günter Walden & Felix Wenzelmann & Stefan C. Wolter, 2009. "Costs and Benefits of Apprenticeship Training. A Comparison of Germany and Switzerland," Applied Economics Quarterly (formerly: Konjunkturpolitik), Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 55(1), pages 7-37.
    3. Thomas Bolli & Ursula Renold, 2015. "Comparative Advantages of School and Workplace Environment in Competence Acquisition: Empirical Evidence From a Survey Among Professional Tertiary Education and Training Students in Switzerland," KOF Working papers 15-389, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    4. Mansfield, Edwin & Wagner, Samuel, 1975. "Organizational and Strategic Factors Associated with Probabilities of Success in Industrial R & D," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(2), pages 179-198, April.
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    1. Rammer, Christian, 2022. "Measuring process innovation output: Results from firm-level panel data," ZEW Discussion Papers 22-002, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    2. Backes-Gellner Uschi & Lehnert Patrick, 2023. "Berufliche Bildung als Innovationstreiber: Ein lange vernachlässigtes Forschungsfeld," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 24(1), pages 85-97, April.
    3. Christian Rupietta & Uschi Backes-Gellner, 2019. "How firms’ participation in apprenticeship training fosters knowledge diffusion and innovation," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 89(5), pages 569-597, July.
    4. Rammer, Christian, 2023. "Measuring process innovation output in firms: Cost reduction versus quality improvement," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    5. Wei Wang & Kimberly A. Eddleston & Francesco Chirico & Stephen X. Zhang & Qiaozhuan Liang & Wei Deng, 2023. "Family Diversity and Business Start-Up: Do Family Meals Feed the Fire of Entrepreneurship?," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(4), pages 1265-1297, July.

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