An investigation of record linkage refusal and its implications for empirical research

Linking survey data to administrative records provides access to large quantities of information such as full employment biographies. Although this practice is becoming increasingly common, only a small number of studies in the field of social sciences have thus far investigated the variables associated with linkage consent. These studies have produced diverging results with regard to the relevance of certain characteristics for the provision or non-provision of linkage consent. In this study, we analyze two comparable German datasets, thereby shedding new light on the possible reasons for previously inconsistent results. This is also the first study in which possible linkage consent bias is investigated in applied models, via the replication of an existing study for the sample in which respondents did not consent to data linkage. Whilst similar results are found between standard sociodemographic variables and linkage consent, there are considerable inconsistencies between the comparable datasets in terms of variables such as individual personality traits and work satisfaction. Overall, however, the results are promising – results do not differ much where respondents who did not provide linkage consent are considered

Cognitive skills, tasks and job mobility

The authors investigate on the basis of primary and secondary data the relationship between individual cognitive skills and the complexity of the particular work those individuals perform. Additionally, the relationship between skills and mobility between more or less complex jobs in an highly homogenous industrial environment is analyzed. The primary data consists of a survey conducted in 2011 of anonymously tested 305 participants in selected factories of four different companies. The survey consists of a newly developed dynamic problem solving test and a standard general intelligence test. Skill measurement is supplemented by information about tasks and personal background. Results are compared to larger scale secondary data sources. Special focus is placed on different employment groups within a company: assemblers, craftsmen, technicians and engineers. Using this data, we can show that non-routine content of individual work is strongly related to cognitive skills. Also, higher cognitive skill levels predict upward occupational mobility. Finally, we demonstrate that the established task-based approach helps to explain why the occupational mobility between some occupational groups is lower than between others. These findings can be useful for the discovery of opportunities for occupational upward mobility in a homogenous environment

Competitive balance and assortative matching in the German Bundesliga

In this paper we consider trends in the distribution of player talent across association football clubs over time. Player talent is the most important prerequisite for team success in professional sports leagues and changes in players’ assortativeness in regard to the clubs they play for may arguably be an important factor for changes in competitive balance. We offer a new approach for measuring player talent and its distribution - the partial correlation of each player with the goal margin. We use this measure to analyze the degree of competitive balance over time. This approach enables us to examine how player mobility drives competitive balance over time. Empirical results are based on 19 seasons of the first two divisions of the German Bundesliga as well as domestic cup games. Our results show a decrease in competitive balance over time; better teams tend to attract increasingly better players. We show that this is driven by an increasingly unequal inter-divisional distribution of teams, coaches and players, as well as increasing assortativeness in the 1st Bundesliga. We further demonstrate that player transfers between Bundesliga teams results in assortative matching between players and teams. These domestic transfers do not, however, explain the reduction in competitive balance over time. Furthermore, we show that UEFA Champions League payments may have contributed to the reduction in competitive balance over the last two decades

Determinants of work-related training: an investigation of observed and unobserved firm-, job- and worker-heterogeneity

One of the most important policy goals in industrialized countries is to increase the skill level of the labor force by life-long-learning strategies. In this paper our aim is to explain to what extent the variation in training investments is determined either by (observed and unobserved) heterogeneity of firms or of workers, hence we put a new perspective on the determinants of training. Rather than analyzing single determinants or groups of variables, we decompose the variation into a worker-specific and a firm-specific part and show how much of the unexplained variation is independent of both. Our results show that both firm-, job- and worker-level heterogeneity explains training participation and that firm heterogeneity is far less important compared to the others. Also interesting, is the finding that a large part of the overall variance is not driven by firm- or worker heterogeneity, hence training participation seems to be to some extent an unexplained event which happens by chance

Incentivizing creativity : a large-scale experiment with tournaments and gifts

This paper reports the results from a large-scale laboratory experiment investigating the impact of tournament incentives and wage gifts on creativity. We find that tournaments substantially increase creative output, with no evidence for crowding out of intrinsic motivation. By comparison, wage gifts are ineffective. Additional treatments show that it is the uncertain mapping between effort and output that inhibits reciprocity. This uncertainty is prevalent in creative and other complex tasks. Our findings provide a rationale for the frequent use of tournaments when seeking to motivate creative output

Incentives and creativity

Ideenreichtum und Innovationen stellen in wissensintensiven Volkswirtschaften den Schlüssel zu Wettbewerbsfähigkeit und Erfolg von Unternehmen dar. In einem solchen Umfeld muss ein Unternehmen strategisch Maßnahmen entwickeln, um Anreize für neue Ideen im Unternehmen zu schaffen und eine Kultur aufbauen, in der Wissensproduktion honoriert wird. Die vom SEEK-Forschungsprogramm finanzierte Forschungsarbeit behandelt zwei empirische Studien, die sich mit der Frage beschäftigen, ob finanzielle Belohnungen wie leistungsunabhängige Zusatzzahlungen oder Leistungsprämien Kreativität und Einfallsreichtum unter den Mitarbeitern fördern, und inwieweit die Effekte der Belohnungen je nach Art der Honorierung variieren

An investigation of record linkage refusal and its implications for empirical research

Linking survey data to administrative records provides access to large quantities of information such as full employment biographies. Although this practice is becoming increasingly common, only a small number of studies in the field of social sciences have thus far investigated the variables associated with linkage consent. These studies have produced diverging results with regard to the relevance of certain characteristics for the provision or non-provision of linkage consent. In this study, we analyze two comparable German datasets, thereby shedding new light on the possible reasons for previously inconsistent results. This is also the first study in which possible linkage consent bias is investigated in applied models, via the replication of an existing study for the sample in which respondents did not consent to data linkage. Whilst similar results are found between standard sociodemographic variables and linkage consent, there are considerable inconsistencies between the comparable datasets in terms of variables such as individual personality traits and work satisfaction. Overall, however, the results are promising – results do not differ much where respondents who did not provide linkage consent are considered

Determinants of work-related training: an investigation of observed and unobserved firm-, job- and worker-heterogeneity

One of the most important policy goals in industrialized countries is to increase the skill level of the labor force by life-long-learning strategies. In this paper our aim is to explain to what extent the variation in training investments is determined either by (observed and unobserved) heterogeneity of firms or of workers, hence we put a new perspective on the determinants of training. Rather than analyzing single determinants or groups of variables, we decompose the variation into a worker-specific and a firm-specific part and show how much of the unexplained variation is independent of both. Our results show that both firm-, job- and worker-level heterogeneity explains training participation and that firm heterogeneity is far less important compared to the others. Also interesting, is the finding that a large part of the overall variance is not driven by firm- or worker heterogeneity, hence training participation seems to be to some extent an unexplained event which happens by chance

Ageing and Skills

The relationship between ageing and skills is becoming an important policy issue, not least in the context of population ageing. Data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) will potentially add considerably to the understanding of the relationship between ageing and foundation skills. In particular, the fact that data from the 1994-1998 International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) and the 2003-2007 Adult Literacy and Lifeskills Survey (ALL) will be linked with PIAAC offers a unique opportunity to examine trends over time at the cohort level for a wide range of countries. Specifically, repeated measures will enable an analysis of whether there is skill gain and skill loss over the lifespan of cohorts and overtime between cohorts. This is especially important because age-skill profiles observed on the basis of a single cross-section are difficult to interpret. With this as a backdrop, this paper has sought to provide an overview of what is known about age-skill profiles and to conduct an analysis that demonstrates how trend data based on repeated cross-sectional observations of direct measures of skill at the cohort level can be used to estimate skill gain and skill loss over the lifespan and over time