scholarly journals Firm-Specific Human Capital: A Skill-Weights Approach

10.3386/w9679 ◽  
2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Lazear
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Specific Human Capital

scholarly journals Change in occupational tasks and its implications: evidence from a task panel from 1973 to 2011 for Western Germany

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Maier
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Labor Demand ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
Task Change ◽  
Western Germany ◽  
Specific Human Capital

AbstractThe change of tasks in occupations is of interest to economic and sociological research from three perspectives. The task-based technological change approach describes tasks as the link between capital input and labor demand. In human capital theory, tasks are used to distinguish between general and specific human capital. Moreover, in institutional economics or sociology, it is argued that the specificity of occupations influences the marketability of the corresponding skills and tasks. However, data sources that illustrate task change within occupations are rare. The objective of this paper is therefore to introduce a task panel, which is created based on 16 cross-sectional surveys from between 1973 and 2011 of the German microcensus (Labor-Force-Survey), as an additional source to monitor task change. I present and discuss the harmonization method for eleven main activities that are exercised by the incumbents of the occupation within 176 occupational groups. To demonstrate the research potential of this novel data source, I develop an alternative theoretical view on the task-technology framework and classify the harmonized tasks according to their relationship to technological inventions in the third industrial (micro-electronic) revolution (technologically replaceable, technology-accompanying, technology-complementary and technologically neutral). Matching the task panel to an already existing Occupational Panel (OccPan) for Western Germany from 1976 to 2010, I can use fixed-effect regressions to show that changes of tasks within occupations correspond with theoretical expectations regarding the median wage growth of an occupation. The task panel can be matched to any data set containing a German classification of occupations from 1975, 1988 or 1992 to investigate further effects of task change on individual labor market success.

The Governance of Human Capital-Intensive Firms

2018 ◽  
pp. 73-98
Author(s):  
Cécile Cézanne
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Work Motivation ◽  
Original Model ◽  
Resource Model ◽  
Intrinsic Nature ◽  
Governance Model ◽  
Specific Human Capital ◽  
Capital Intensive ◽  
Operational Device

For the past 30 years, the organization and functioning of firms have considerably changed, especially with the growing importance of human capital. In parallel, the primacy of the shareholder governance model has maintained. The aim of this chapter is to review the main theoretical and empirical elements of this paradox and to propose a renewed model of firm governance that takes into account the intrinsic nature of critical human capital incorporated by key employees. The chapter shows that the inalienable residual rights of control inherent to specific human capital are inconsistent with traditional disciplinary models of corporate governance. They rather call for a model of regulation of economic power exercising based on work motivation. This original model that the author calls the “multi-resource model” aims to encourage, retain, and collectively enrich critical resources by using an original operational device based on complementary instruments of incentive and coordination.

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