Essays on productivity dynamics and labour market outcomes

Reinhard, Martin

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URN:	urn:nbn:de:bsz:180-madoc-654650
Document Type:	Doctoral dissertation
Year of publication:	2023
Place of publication:	Mannheim
University:	Universität Mannheim
Evaluator:	Fadinger, Harald
Date of oral examination:	2 June 2023
Publication language:	English
Institution:	School of Law and Economics > Internat. Handel, Makroökonomik, Entwicklungsökonomik (Fadinger 2014-)
Subject:	330 Economics
Keywords (English):	Productivity Slowdown , Productivity Growth , Productivity Divergence , Employment , Labour Market , Automation
Abstract:	This thesis studies the interaction of recent productivity dynamics and their various drivers with other economic outcomes, in particular related to the labour market. Chapter 1 exploits harmonised and comparable data for 13 OECD countries from the MultiProd database to shed new light on the relationship between productivity divergence, i.e. increasing gaps between the most and least productive firms in an industry, and aggregate productivity growth (APG). Chapter 2 again builds on the MultiProd database to comprehensively analyse the productivity-employment nexus at different levels of aggregation. The evidence suggests that both micro- and industry-level productivity growth translate positively into employment growth on average, which however is the outcome of counteracting mechanisms and the quantitative extent of the positive link depends on firm and industry characteristics. In Chapter 3, I theoretically investigate the previously neglected role of workers as task-aggregating institutions for the impact of automation technologies on labour demand. The analysis rationalises the positive micro-level relationship of automation on labour demand that prevails despite the task-replacing nature of automation. At the same time, automation may reduce employment at the more aggregate level and contribute to the fall of the labour share.