Over the past 23 years (1990 to 2012), French beef cattle farms have expanded in size and increased labour productivity by over 60%, chiefly, though not exclusively, through capital intensification (labour-capital substitution) and simplifying herd feeding practices (more concentrates used). The technical efficiency of beef sector production systems, as measured by the ratio of the volume value...

In efficient global labour markets for very high wage workers one might expect wage differentials between migrant and domestic workers to reflect differences in labour productivity. However, using panel data on worker-firm matches in a single industry over a seven year period we find a substantial wage penalty for domestic workers which persists within firms and is only partially accounted for ...

Three features of China’s trade patterns suggest that elements beyond factor abundance explain its export performance. The high penetration in world markets of labourintensive products has been accompanied by: (i) a high share in exports of productivityadvanced foreign-owned enterprises (FIEs), (ii) a high penetration of FIEs in labourintensive sectors, and (iii) a relative high sophistication ...

This paper presents annual indices of labour input adjusted for the age, education and gender distributions of the Irish workforce for the period 1999-2008. Growth in labour services is divided between the increase in hours and improvement in the productive quality of these hours. Improvement in labour quality, as proxied by education, age and gender, has added on average 0.7 percentage points ...

For seven European countries macro-level indicators of the accumulation of intangible capital are developed. Using hedonic prices deflate investments in IT hardware, IT software and telecommunication equipment, for both intangibles and ‘smart’ tangibles capital stocks are constructed. These capital stock data are then used as an input to analyse the productivity effects for the business sector ...

The current demographic developments and their consequences for workforce ageing challenge the sustainability of intergenerational transfers and economic growth. A shrinking share of the young workforce will have to support a growing share of elderly, non-working people. Therefore, the productivity of the workforce is central to a sustainable economic future. In order to study the relation betw...

The current demographic developments and their consequences for workforce ageing challenge the sustainability of intergenerational transfers and economic growth. A shrinking share of the young workforce will have to support a growing share of elderly, non-working people. Therefore, the productivity of the workforce is central to a sustainable economic future. In order to study the relation betw...

The evidence that earnings rise with firm size and that human capital affects earnings based on labour market data are two of the most robust empirical findings in economics. In contrast the evidence for scale economies in firm data is very weak. The limited direct evidence of human capital on firm productivity suggests that human capital is indeed productive and that the magnitudes are consist...