Is Mobility of Technical Personnel a Source of R&D Spillovers?

Labor mobility is often considered to be an important source of knowledge externalities, making it difficult for firms to appropriate returns to R&D investments. In this paper, I argue that inter-firm transfers of knowledge embodied in people should be analyzed within a human capital framework. Testing such a framework using a matched employer-employee data set, I find that the technical staff in R&D-intensive firms pays for the knowledge they accumulate on the job through lower wages in the beginning of their career. Later they earn a return on these implicit investments through higher wages. This suggests that the potential externalities associated with labor mobility, at least to some extent, are internalized in the labor market.

A simple improvement of the IV estimator for the classical errors-in-variables problem

Two measures of an error-ridden explanatory variable make it possible to solve the classical errors-in-variable problem by using one measure as an instrument for the other. It is well known that a second IV estimate can be obtained by reversing the roles of the two measures. We explore a simple estimator that is the linear combination of these two estimates, that minimizes the asymptotic mean squared error. In a Monte Carlo study we show that the gain in precision is significant compared to using only one of the original IV estimates. The proposed estimator also compares well with full information maximum likelihood under normality.Measurement errors; Classical Errors-in-Variables; multiple indicator method; Instrumental variable techniques

Samfunnsøkonomiske perspektiver på pressestøtten

Internett har endret markedet for papiraviser og redusert lønnsomheten dramatisk. Dette medfører at mediestøtte vil få stor betydning for framtidens mediestruktur. Tradisjonelt har mediestøtten blitt regnet som en kulturbevilgning og unndratt seg fagøkonomers oppmerksomhet. Jeg argumenterer for at mediestøtte bør analyseres innenfor et markedssviktperspektiv og at det er klare paralleller mellom mediepolitikk og kunnskapspolitikk. Hovedbegrunnelsen for å subsidiere kunnskapsproduksjon er at den som frembringer ny kunnskap sjelden får hele gevinsten. Journalister er kunnskapsarbeidere, og det er grunn til å tro at den samfunnsøkonomiske avkastningen av undersøkende journalistikk er spesielt høy. Det taler for at mediestøtten bør rettes direkte mot det journalistiske arbeidet. Dette kan skje dels gjennom direkte pressestøtte i form av arbeidsstipend og støtte til utvalgte satsinger, dels gjennom indirekte støtte i form av skattefradrag for redaksjonelle stillinger. En ordning med skattefradrag bør erstatte dagens momsfritak. Momsfritaket er et lite treffsikkert virkemiddel og gir en ekstrem skjevfordeling av støtten i favør av de største avisene

Grading standards, student ability and errors in college admission

Grades are important for admission of students in most higher education programmes. Analysing admission and student performance data at a major Norwegian business school, we find that the grading practice of teachers at regional colleges sending students to the school is affected by the average performance of the students being graded. Teachers at colleges recruiting good students from upper secondary school tend to be strict in their grading practice, while teachers at colleges recruiting less good students tend to follow a lenient practice. This has implications for the interpretation of grades and hence for optimal admission procedures. We develop a methodology to assess the consequences of differential grading standards. Approximately ten percent of the students in our data are admitted at the expense of more competent students. We demonstrate costs for the school admitting wrong students and in particular for the rejected students.Grading practices; Differential grading standards; Admission policy

R&D investment responses to R&D subsidies: A theoretical analysis and a microeconometric study

Subsidies to the Norwegian high-tech industries have traditionally been given as "matching grants", i.e. the subsidies are targeted, and the firms have to contribute a 50 % own risk capital to the subsidized projects. Our results suggest that grants do not crowd out privately financed R&D, but that subsidized firms do not increase their privately financed R&D either. Hence, the own risk capital seems to be taken from ordinary R&D budgets. We also investigate possible long-run effects of R&D subsidies, and show that conventional R&D investment models predict negative dynamic effects of subsidies. Our data, however, do not support this claim. On the contrary, there are indications of a positive dynamic effects, i.e. temporary R&D subsidies seem to stimulate firms to increase their R&D investments even after the grants have expired. We propose learning-by-doing in R&D activities as a possible explanation for this, and present a theoretical analysis showing that such effects may alter the predictions of the conventional models. A structural, econometric model of R&D investments incorporating such learning effects is estimated with reasonable results.Technology policy; R&D subsidies; matching grants; short run additionality; long run additionality; Norwegian IT-industry

Grading standards, student ability and errors in college admission

Grades are important for admission of students in most higher education programmes. Analysing admission and student performance data at a major Norwegian business school, we find that the grading practice of teachers at regional colleges sending students to the school is affected by the average performance of the students being graded. Teachers at colleges recruiting good students from upper secondary school tend to be strict in their grading practice, while teachers at colleges recruiting less good students tend to follow a lenient practice. This has implications for the interpretation of grades and hence for optimal admission procedures. We develop a methodology to assess the consequences of differential grading standards. Approximately ten percent of the students in our data are admitted at the expense of more competent students. We demonstrate costs for the school admitting wrong students and in particular for the rejected students

A simple improvement of the IV estimator for the classical errors-in-variables problem

Two measures of an error-ridden explanatory variable make it possible to solve the classical errors-in-variable problem by using one measure as an instrument for the other. It is well known that a second IV estimate can be obtained by reversing the roles of the two measures. We explore a simple estimator that is the linear combination of these two estimates, that minimizes the asymptotic mean squared error. In a Monte Carlo study we show that the gain in precision is signifcant compared to using only one of the original IV estimates. The proposed estimator also compares well with full information maximum likelihood under normality

Wage Structure and Labor Mobility in Norway 1980-1997

To what extent do different firms follow different wage policies? How do such policies affect worker mobility between firms, and what are the effects of different wage bargaining regimes? The empirical branch of personnel economics has long been hampered by a lack of representative data sets. Norway is one of a handful of countries that has produced rich linked employer/employee data suitable for such analysis. This paper has three parts. First, we describe the wage setting and employment protection institutions in Norway. Next, we describe the Norwegian datasets. Finally, we document a large number of stylized facts regarding wage structure and labor mobility within and between Norwegian firms. Our main dataset covers white-collar workers in the manufacturing and private sectors for the period 1980-1997. We also have blue-collar data for the 1986-1997 period covering the core of the manufacturing sector. Information about occupations, monthly wages, hours worked and bonuses is available, as well as various worker and firm characteristics.