Wage and Labor Mobility in Denmark, 1980-2000

This paper consists of three parts. First, we briefly describe some key features of the labor market in Denmark, some of which contribute to the Danish labor markets behaving quite differently from those in many other European countries. The next two parts exploit detailed linked employer-employee data. In the second part we document in some detail an important aspect of the functioning and flexibility of the labor markets in Denmark: the high level of worker mobility. We show that mobility is about as high, or even higher, as in the highly fluid U.S. labor market. Finally, we describe and examine the wage structure between and within firms and changes therein since 1980, especially with an eye on possible impacts of the trend towards a more decentralized wage determination. The shift towards decentralized wage bargaining has coincided with deregulation and increased product market competition. The evidence is, however, not consistent with stronger competition in product markets eroding firm-specific rents. Hence, the prime suspect is the change in wage setting institutions.

The Dispersion of Employees' Wage Increases and Firm Performance

In this contribution we examine the interrelation between intra-firm wage increases and firm performance. Previous studies have focused on the dispersion of wages in order to examine for the empirical dominance of positive monetary incentive effects compared to adverse effects due to fairness considerations. We argue that the dispersion of wage increases rather than wage levels is a crucial measure for monetary incentives in firms. The larger the dispersion of wage increases the higher the amount of monetary incentives in firms. In contrast, huge wage inequality without any promotion possibilities does not induce any monetary incentives. Evidence from unique Danish linked employer employee data shows that large dispersion of wage growth within firms is generally connected with low firm performance. The results are mainly driven by white collar rather than blue collar workers.Fairness, Firm performance, Inequality, Monetary Incentives, Wage increases, Wage Dispersion

Job Creation and Destruction over the Business Cycles and the Impact on Individual Job Flows in Denmark 1980-2001

Job creation and destruction should be considered as key success or failure criteria of the economic policy. Job creation and destruction are both effects of economic policy, the degree of out- and in-sourcing, and the ability to create new ideas that can be transformed into jobs. Job creation and destruction are results of businesses attempting to maximize their economic outcome. One of the costs of this process is that employees have to move from destroyed jobs to created jobs. The development of this process probably depends on labor protection laws, habits, the educational system, and the whole UI-system. A flexible labor market ensures that scarce labor resources are used where they are most in demand. Thus, labor turnover is an essential factor in a well-functioning economy. This paper uses employer-employee data from the Danish registers of persons and workplaces to show where jobs have been destroyed and where they have been created over the last couple of business cycles. Jobs are in general destroyed and created simultaneously within each industry, but at the same time a major restructuring has taken place, so that jobs have been lost in Textile and Clothing, Manufacturing and the other “old industries”, while jobs have been created in Trade and Service industries. Out-sourcing has been one of the causes. This restructuring has caused a tremendous pressure on workers and their ability to find employment in expanding sectors. The paper shows how this has been accomplished. Especially, the paper shows what has happened to employees involved. Have they become unemployed, employed in the welfare sector or where?job creation and job destruction; turnover of personnel; duration of unemployment; and impact of business cycles

Where did they go?

We study individual job-separations and their associated destination states for all individuals in the private sector in Denmark for the period 1980 to 1995 and account for the cyclical flows. We find that individual and workplace characteristics as well as business cycle effects are important in explaining the individual behaviour. In policy simulations we look at the impact on individual transitions. We find that structural and growth policies have different implications for the economy. Policy interventions with the purpose of preventing firm closures are argued to be inefficient.Business cycles; Job separations; Transition probabilities

Adverse Workplace Conditions, High-Involvement Work Practices and Labor Turnover: Evidence from Danish Linked Employer-Employee Data

This paper contributes to the emerging strand of the empirical literature that takes advantage of new data on workplace-specific job attributes and voluntary employee turnover to shed fresh insights on the relationship between employee turnover, adverse workplace conditions and HRM environments. We find evidence that workers in hazardous workplace conditions are indeed more likely to separate from their current employers voluntarily while High-Involvement Work Practices (HIWPs) reduces employee turnover. Specifically, exposing a worker to physical hazards such as loud noise, vibration or poor lighting will lead to a 3 percentage point increase in the probability of turnover from the average turnover rate of 18 percent; working in a fixed night shift will result in an 11 percentage point jump in the turnover probability, and having an unsupportive boss will lead to a 5 percentage point increase. The effect of HIWPs is modest yet hardly negligible with a 4 percentage point reduction in the turnover probability from having voice in the workplace. Furthermore the turnover-increasing effect of physical hazards is found to be significantly reduced by the presence of strong information sharing whereas the adverse effect on turnover of the use of fixed night shift is also found to be significantly mitigated by the authority delegation to workers by management. As such, our evidence lends support to those who advocate the use of HIWPs for those firms with employee turnover problems due to hazardous workplace conditions. Finally, our logit analysis of the 5-year odds of improving workplace conditions suggests that the worker exposed to adverse workplace conditions can improve her long-term odds of rectifying such workplace adversities significantly by separating from the firm voluntarily. Voluntary turnover appears to be a rational worker response to adverse workplace conditions, and unless the firm alleviates its adverse workplace conditions directly or mitigates their effects on voluntary turnover through HIWPs, workers exposed to adverse workplace conditions will likely continue to take the exit option.employee turnover, workplace conditions, human resource management, high-involvement work system, high-performance work system

Job Mobility and Skill Transferability. Some Evidences from Denmark and a Large Italian Region

This paper investigates the effect of job mobility and tenure on wage dynamics. In this respect, theory assesses that high job mobility and low tenure are associated to lower wage drop when workers experience a job change. We test this theory first comparing two labour market (i.e. Denmark and a large Italian region, Veneto) characterized by different job mobility and tenure, as a consequence of different level of EPL. Secondly, we perform a within Veneto analysis, comparing the different effects when workers are employed in small rather than big firms. Data drawn from the VWH (Veneto Workers History) and IDA (for Denmark) registered data, from 1987 to 2001, are used. In Denmark job mobility has a positive effect on wage increases, while built up on firm-specific human capital has a negative effect. In Veneto, instead, it appears that long tenure are more rewarding. Some evidences of positive impact of moving from job to job when the barriers are lower come from the analysis of the differences between small and big firms in Veneto.Information sale, Cheap talk, Conflicts of interest, Information Acquisition, Firewalls, Market efficiency

The Laser Calibration System of the ALICE Time Projection Chamber

A Large Ion Collider Experiment (ALICE) is the only experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) dedicated to the study of heavy ion collisions. The Time Projection Chamber (TPC) is the main tracking detector covering the pseudo rapidity range $|\eta|< 0.9$. It is designed for a maximum multiplicity \dNdy = 8000. The aim of the laser system is to simulate ionizing tracks at predifined positions throughout the drift volume in order to monitor the TPC response to a known source. In particular, the alignment of the read-out chambers will be performed, and variations of the drift velocity due to drift field imperfections can be measured and used as calibration data in the physics data analysis. In this paper we present the design of the pulsed UV laser and optical system, together with the control and monitoring systems.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

The Laser of the ALICE Time Projection Chamber

The large TPC ($95 \mathrm{m}^3$) of the ALICE detector at the CERN LHC was commissioned in summer 2006. The first tracks were observed both from the cosmic ray muons and from the laser rays injected into the TPC. In this article the basic principles of operating the $266 \mathrm{nm}$ lasers are presented, showing the installation and adjustment of the optical system and describing the control system. To generate the laser tracks, a wide laser beam is split into several hundred narrow beams by fixed micro-mirrors at stable and known positions throughout the TPC. In the drift volume, these narrow beams generate straight tracks at many angles. Here we describe the generation of the first tracks and compare them with simulations.Comment: QM06 poster proceedings, 6 pages, 4 figure