Employee ownership as a signal of management quality

The employees' decision to become shareholder of the company they work for can be a consequence of employers' matching contribution in company stock. From a behavioral perspective, employees would regard these contributions as an implicit investment advice made by their employer. This paper adopts another viewpoint. Since employee ownership can be used as an entrenchment mechanism, we suggest that employer's matching policy can be considered as an imperfect signal of management quality. This paper suggests that employee ownership can be used by managers to compensate their management skills to the market. It recommends that employee ownership policy should not be influenced by the managers.Employee ownership ; corporate governance ; management entrenchment

New technologies, workplace organisation and the age structure of the workforce: Firm-level evidence

This paper investigates the relationships between new technologies, innovative workplace practices and the age structure of the workforce in a sample of French manufacturing firms. We find evidence that the wage-bill share of older workers is lower in innovative firms and that the opposite holds for younger workers. This age bias affects both men and women. It is also evidenced within occupational groups, thus suggesting that skills do not completely protect workers against the labour-market consequences of ageing. More detailed analysis of employment inflows and outflows shows that new technologies essentially affect older workers through reduced hiring opportunities as compared to younger workers. In contrast, organisational innovations mainly affect the probability of exit, which decreases much more for younger than for older workers following reorganisation.new work practices ; technology ; older workers ; labour demand

Older Workers, New Technology and Organisational Change Further Evidence Using the Reponse Survey

Firms use of technological innovations or organisational change, their expansion into the international market raise the question of how older workers adapt: An analysis of the workforce in 1998 confirms that these changes induce a bias unfavourable to older workers. The establishments that are more computerised or those that implement innovative workplace practices employ fewer older workers. This is true for both qualified workers (managers and intermediary professions) and less qualified workers (blue collars and employees). The causal link between innovation and the employment of older people is, because of its complexity, difficult to prove. However, the analysis of employment inflows and outflows between 1998 and 2001 confirms the idea that innovation worsens skill obsolescence. This observation needs to be nuanced: some organisational changes, such as the decentralisation of decision-making powers, and the increasingly international marketplace require experienced workers and seem more favourable to older workers than to younger ones.New Work Practices, Technology, Older Workers, Labour Demand

Competitiveness in the Quarterly Business Tendency Survey in Industry

INSEEs Business Tendency Survey in industry constitutes a source of information on the competitiveness of manufacturing firms. At an individual level, a rise in competitiveness appears significantly correlated with an increase in sales and production and a reduction in intermediate consumption costs and labour costs. However, these correlations concern raw values rather than relative values in relation to the sector in which they produce. This observation suggests that variations in the competitiveness expressed by entrepreneurs reflect above all the short-term economic changes with which the business is faced, rather than a true modification of its competitive position. At the aggregate level, the balance of opinion on the evolution of competitiveness in the Business Survey seems, however, to follow quite closely the variations of some conventional indicators such as labour productivity or exchange rate, as well as indicators of costs relatively to the costs of competing foreign products.Competitiveness, Business Tendency Surveys, Ordered Multinomial Logit Models

Nouvelles technologies et nouvelles formes d'organisation du travail : quelles conséquences pour l'emploi des salariés âgés ?

This paper investigates the relationships between new technologies, innovative workplace practices and the age structure of the workforce in a static labour demand framework. As a first step, we assume that, in the short run, the only variable factor is the number of workers in different age groups. We then assume, as a second step that the number of workers by age and skill group may vary. The data we use come from several sources: the Changements Organisationnels et Informatisation survey (COI), the Déclarations Annuelles des Données Sociales (DADS) and the Bénéfices Réels Normaux database (BRN). We find evidence that the wage-bill share of older workers is lower in innovative firms. This age bias affects is also evidenced within occupational groups, thus suggesting that skills do not completely protect workers against the labour-market consequences of ageing.Cet article s'intéresse aux relations entre nouvelles technologies, changements organisationnels et structure par âge de la main-d'oeuvre dans un cadre classique de demande de travail statique. Sous l'hypothèse d'une fonction de coût translog, comme cela est habituel dans ce genre de modèle, nous considérons que les seuls facteurs variables sont, dans un premier temps, les effectifs des différents groupes d'âge puis, dans un second temps, les effectifs des groupes d'&oacirc;ge par qualification. Les données utilisées pour estimer ce modèle sont issues de l'appariement de plusieurs sources : l'enquête Changements Organisationnels et Informatisation (COI), les Déclarations Annuelles des Données Sociales (DADS) et la base des Bénéfices Réels Normaux (BRN). Les résultats des estimations montrent que les salariés âgés représentent une part plus faible de la masse salariale dans les entreprises innovantes. Ce " biais à l'encontre de l'âge " est vérifié également au sein des différentes catégories de qualifications : la qualification ne suffit donc pas à protéger complètement contre les conséquences de l'âge

Employee ownership as a signal of management quality

The employees' decision to become shareholder of the company they work for can be a consequence of employers' matching contribution in company stock. From a behavioral perspective, employees would regard these contributions as an implicit investment advice made by their employer. This paper adopts another viewpoint. Since employee ownership can be used as an entrenchment mechanism, we suggest that employer's matching policy can be considered as an imperfect signal of management quality. This paper suggests that employee ownership can be used by managers to compensate their management skills to the market. It recommends that employee ownership policy should not be influenced by the managers

BCB Based Packaging for Low Actuation Voltage RF MEMS Devices

This paper outlines the issues related to RF MEMS packaging and low actuation voltage. An original approach is presented concerning the modeling of capacitive contacts using multiphysics simulation and advanced characterization. A similar approach is used concerning packaging development where multi-physics simulations are used to optimize the process. A devoted package architecture is proposed featuring very low loss at microwave range

Nouvelles technologies et nouvelles formes d'organisation du travail : quelles conséquences pour l'emploi des salariés âgés ?

Cet article s'intéresse aux relations entre nouvelles technologies, changements organisationnels et structure par âge de la main-d'oeuvre dans un cadre classique de demande de travail statique. Sous l'hypothèse d'une fonction de coût translog, comme cela est habituel dans ce genre de modèle, nous considérons que les seuls facteurs variables sont, dans un premier temps, les effectifs des différents groupes d'âge puis, dans un second temps, les effectifs des groupes d'&oacirc;ge par qualification. Les données utilisées pour estimer ce modèle sont issues de l'appariement de plusieurs sources : l'enquête Changements Organisationnels et Informatisation (COI), les Déclarations Annuelles des Données Sociales (DADS) et la base des Bénéfices Réels Normaux (BRN). Les résultats des estimations montrent que les salariés âgés représentent une part plus faible de la masse salariale dans les entreprises innovantes. Ce " biais à l'encontre de l'âge " est vérifié également au sein des différentes catégories de qualifications : la qualification ne suffit donc pas à protéger complètement contre les conséquences de l'âge.changements technologiques ; changements organisationnels ; demande de travail

Is employee ownership so senseless ?

Since Enron and the ruin of thousands of its employees, employee ownership is harshly criticized. Investing savings in employer's stock would be equivalent to bet on only one asset. Moreover, employee ownership's debated efficiency would not justify employers to grant company stock to their employees. Still, employee ownership is put in place by thousands of companies and withhold by millions of employees throughout the world. This paper considers a moral hazard setting where a risk neutral entrepreneur grants company stock to its risk averse employee as an incentive. We show that there is an optimal transfer of employee ownership that satisfies employee's risk preference and has an incentive effect. We thus bring about rational argument in favor of employee ownership.Depuis Enron et la ruine de milliers de ses employés, l'actionnariat salarié est critiqué. Investir son épargne en actions de son entreprise équivaudrait à parier sur un seul actif. De plus, l'efficacité contestée de l'actionnariat salarié ne justifierait pas que les entreprises distribuent des actions à leurs salariés. Pourtant, l'actionnariat salarié est adopté par des milliers d'entreprises et des millions de salariés à travers le monde. Cet article propose un modèle d'aléa moral où un entrepreneur neutre envers le risque utilise l'actionnariat salarié pour inciter son salarié averse au risque. Nous montrons l'existence d'un transfert optimal d'actionnariat salarié qui satisfait les préférences du salarié et s'accompagne d'un effet incitatif. Nous apportons ainsi un argument rationnel en faveur de l'actionnariat salarié