Age and gender composition of the workforce, productivity and profits: Evidence from a new type of data for German enterprises

Research output: Working paperWorking papers

Standard

Age and gender composition of the workforce, productivity and profits: Evidence from a new type of data for German enterprises. / Pfeifer, Christian; Wagner, Joachim.
Bonn: IZA - Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit, 2012. (IZA Discussion Paper; No. 6381).

Research output: Working paperWorking papers

Harvard

APA

Vancouver

Bibtex

@techreport{3a6b936c89754686a06fc2ecd20f178f,
title = "Age and gender composition of the workforce, productivity and profits: Evidence from a new type of data for German enterprises",
abstract = "This empirical paper documents the relationship between composition of a firm{\textquoteright}s workforce (with a special focus on age and gender) and its performance (productivity and profitability) for a large representative sample of enterprises from manufacturing industries in Germany. We use unique newly available data that for the first time combine information from the statistics of employees covered by social security that is aggregated at the enterprise level and information from enterprise level surveys performed by the Statistical Offices. Our micro-econometric analysis confirms previous findings of concave age-productivity profiles, which are consistent with human capital theory, and adds a new finding of a rather negative effect of age on firms{\textquoteright} profitability, which is consistent with deferred compensation considerations. Moreover, our analysis reveals for the first time that the ceteris paribus lower level of productivity in firms with a higher share of female employees does not go hand in hand with a lower level of profitability in these firms. If anything, profitability is (slightly) higher in firms with a larger share of female employees. This finding might indicate that lower productivity of women is (over)compensated by lower wage costs for women, which might be driven by general labor market discrimination against women.",
keywords = "Economics, empirical/statistics, Ageing, firm performance, gender, productivity, profitability, Germany, Gender and Diversity",
author = "Christian Pfeifer and Joachim Wagner",
year = "2012",
language = "English",
series = "IZA Discussion Paper",
publisher = "IZA - Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit",
number = "6381",
address = "Germany",
type = "WorkingPaper",
institution = "IZA - Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit",

}

RIS

TY - UNPB

T1 - Age and gender composition of the workforce, productivity and profits

T2 - Evidence from a new type of data for German enterprises

AU - Pfeifer, Christian

AU - Wagner, Joachim

PY - 2012

Y1 - 2012

N2 - This empirical paper documents the relationship between composition of a firm’s workforce (with a special focus on age and gender) and its performance (productivity and profitability) for a large representative sample of enterprises from manufacturing industries in Germany. We use unique newly available data that for the first time combine information from the statistics of employees covered by social security that is aggregated at the enterprise level and information from enterprise level surveys performed by the Statistical Offices. Our micro-econometric analysis confirms previous findings of concave age-productivity profiles, which are consistent with human capital theory, and adds a new finding of a rather negative effect of age on firms’ profitability, which is consistent with deferred compensation considerations. Moreover, our analysis reveals for the first time that the ceteris paribus lower level of productivity in firms with a higher share of female employees does not go hand in hand with a lower level of profitability in these firms. If anything, profitability is (slightly) higher in firms with a larger share of female employees. This finding might indicate that lower productivity of women is (over)compensated by lower wage costs for women, which might be driven by general labor market discrimination against women.

AB - This empirical paper documents the relationship between composition of a firm’s workforce (with a special focus on age and gender) and its performance (productivity and profitability) for a large representative sample of enterprises from manufacturing industries in Germany. We use unique newly available data that for the first time combine information from the statistics of employees covered by social security that is aggregated at the enterprise level and information from enterprise level surveys performed by the Statistical Offices. Our micro-econometric analysis confirms previous findings of concave age-productivity profiles, which are consistent with human capital theory, and adds a new finding of a rather negative effect of age on firms’ profitability, which is consistent with deferred compensation considerations. Moreover, our analysis reveals for the first time that the ceteris paribus lower level of productivity in firms with a higher share of female employees does not go hand in hand with a lower level of profitability in these firms. If anything, profitability is (slightly) higher in firms with a larger share of female employees. This finding might indicate that lower productivity of women is (over)compensated by lower wage costs for women, which might be driven by general labor market discrimination against women.

KW - Economics, empirical/statistics

KW - Ageing

KW - firm performance

KW - gender

KW - productivity

KW - profitability

KW - Germany

KW - Gender and Diversity

M3 - Working papers

T3 - IZA Discussion Paper

BT - Age and gender composition of the workforce, productivity and profits

PB - IZA - Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit

CY - Bonn

ER -

Links

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Non-destructive transmissive inductive thickness sensor for IoT applications
  2. Spielt es nur eine Rolle "was" gepromptet wird oder auch "wann" gepromptet wird.
  3. Mindfulness and cognitive-behavioral strategies for psychological detachment
  4. Multiscale analysis for the bio-heat transfer equation - The nonisolated case
  5. Ein piezohydraulischer vollvariabler Ventilantrieb eines Verbrennungsmotors
  6. Liebe im Kapitalismus zwischen Geschlechtergleichheit und Marktorientierung
  7. Improved sensorimotor control is not connected with improved proprioception
  8. An analytical approach to evaluating nonmonotonic functions of fuzzy numbers
  9. The Success and Failure of Financial Innovations: The Case of Louis Bachelier
  10. Individuelle mathematische Lernprozesse erfassen, herausfordern und begleiten
  11. Export entry, export exit and productivity in German manufacturing industries
  12. Precipitation Kinetics of AA6082: An Experimental and Numerical Investigation
  13. Capital market imperfections and trade liberalization in general equilibrium
  14. Dimension estimates for certain sets of infinite complex continued fractions
  15. Geometric disturbance decoupling control of vehicles with active suspensions
  16. Abnormal extrusion texture and reversed yield asymmetry in a Mg–Y-Sm-Zn-Zr alloy
  17. Cascade MIMO P-PID Controllers Applied in an Over-actuated Quadrotor Tilt-Rotor
  18. Zur Diskrepanz impliziter und expliziter sicherheitskritischer Einstellungen.
  19. Belief in free will affects causal attributions when judging others’ behavior
  20. A Unified Contextual Bandit Framework for Long- and Short-Term Recommendations
  21. Wie beeinflusst die Kameraperspektive die Beurteilung der Unterrichtsqualität?
  22. Microhardness and in vitro corrosion of heat-treated Mg-Y-Ag biodegradable alloy
  23. Lengthscale-dependent modelling of ductile failure in metallic microstructures
  24. Graph-based Approaches for Analyzing Team Interaction on the Example of Soccer
  25. Dual Kalman Filters Analysis for Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors
  26. Accuracy Improvement by Artificial Neural Networks in Technical Vision System
  27. Friction analyses in twisted and helical profile extrusion of aluminum alloys
  28. Obstacle Coordinates Transformation from TVS Body-Frame to AGV Navigation-Frame
  29. Schülervorstellungen und sozialwissenschaftliche Vorstellungen über Migration
  30. Motion-decoupled internal force control in grasping with visco-elastic contacts
  31. The Lotka-Volterra Model for Competition Controlled by a Sliding Mode Approach
  32. Similar factors underlie tree abundance in forests in native and alien ranges
  33. Do the global stochastic trends drive the real house prices in OECD countries?
  34. Sustainable management of marine fish stocks by means of sliding mode control
  35. Effects of Mn and Zn solutes on grain refinement of commercial pure magnesium
  36. Early Detection of Faillure in Conveyor Chain Systems by Wireless Sensor Node
  37. Impact of soft law regulation by corporate governance codes on firm valuation
  38. Microstructure refinement by a novel friction-based processing on Mg-Zn-Ca alloy
  39. Number theoretical peculiarities in the dimension theory of dynamical systems