IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bwu/schdps/sdp11006.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Temporary Agency Work and Firm Competitiveness - Evidence from a panel data set of German manufacturing enterprises

Author

Listed:
  • Sebastian Nielen

    (Schumpeter School of Business and Economics at the University of Wuppertal)

  • Alexander Schiersch

    (German Institute for Economic Research, Berlin)

Abstract

This paper addresses the relationship between the utilization of temporary agency workers by firms and their competitiveness measured by unit labor costs, using a rich, newly built, data set of German manufacturing enterprises. The analysis is conducted by applying different panel data models while taking the inherent selection problem into account. Making use of dynamic panel data models allows us to control for firm specific fixed effects as well as for potential endogeneity of explanatory variables. The results indicate a U-shaped relationship between the extent that temporary agency workers are used and the competitiveness of firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Sebastian Nielen & Alexander Schiersch, 2011. "Temporary Agency Work and Firm Competitiveness - Evidence from a panel data set of German manufacturing enterprises," Schumpeter Discussion Papers sdp11006, Universitätsbibliothek Wuppertal, University Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:bwu:schdps:sdp11006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://elekpub.bib.uni-wuppertal.de/ubwhsmig/download/pdf/7341842?originalFilename=true
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Susan N. Houseman & Arne L. Kalleberg & George A. Erickcek, 2003. "The Role of Temporary Agency Employment in Tight Labor Markets," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 57(1), pages 105-127, October.
    2. Susan N. Houseman & Arne L. Kalleberg & George A. Erickcek, 2001. "The Role of Temporary Help Employment in Tight Labor Markets," Upjohn Working Papers 01-73, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alejandro Micco & Pablo Muñoz-Henríquez, 2018. "The Impact of Extended Employment Protection Laws on the Demand for Temporary Agency Workers," Working Papers wp463, University of Chile, Department of Economics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David H. Autor & Susan N. Houseman, 2010. "Do Temporary-Help Jobs Improve Labor Market Outcomes for Low-Skilled Workers? Evidence from "Work First"," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(3), pages 96-128, July.
    2. Elke J. Jahn & Jan Bentzen, 2012. "What Drives the Demand for Temporary Agency Workers?," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 26(3), pages 341-355, September.
    3. J. Ignacio García‐Pérez & Fernando Muñoz‐Bullón, 2011. "Transitions into Permanent Employment in Spain: An Empirical Analysis for Young Workers," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 49(1), pages 103-143, March.
    4. repec:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2005-048 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Carolyn J. Heinrich & Peter R. Mueser & Kenneth R. Troske, 2009. "The Role of Temporary Help Employment in Low-Wage Worker Advancement," NBER Chapters, in: Studies of Labor Market Intermediation, pages 399-436, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. David H. Autor, 2008. "The Economics of Labor Market Intermediation: An Analytic Framework," NBER Working Papers 14348, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Andres Drenik & Simon Jager & Pascuel Plotkin & Benjamin Schoefer, 2023. "Paying Outsourced Labor: Direct Evidence from Linked Temp Agency-Worker-Client Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 105(1), pages 206-216, January.
    8. Jahn, Elke & Pozzoli, Dario, 2011. "Does the Sector Experience Affect the Pay Gap for Temporary Agency Workers?," Working Papers 11-9, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Economics.
    9. Antoni, Manfred & Jahn, Elke J., 2006. "Do Changes in Regulation Affect Employment Duration in Temporary Work Agencies?," IZA Discussion Papers 2343, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. John T. Addison & Christopher J. Surfield, 2005. "‘Atypical Work’ and Compensation," GEMF Working Papers 2005-14, GEMF, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra.
    11. Malo, Miguel A., 2008. "Working career progress in the tourism industry : temp-to perm transitions in Spain," DEE - Working Papers. Business Economics. WB wb083510, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía de la Empresa.
    12. Jahn, Elke J., 2008. "Reassessing the Wage Penalty for Temps in Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 3663, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Yukako Ono & Daniel Sullivan, 2013. "Manufacturing Plants' Use of Temporary Workers: An Analysis Using Census Microdata," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 419-443, April.
    14. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/1v5orglviq8epaecq1buersvk5 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Sebastian Nielen & Alexander Schiersch, 2014. "Temporary Agency Work and Firm Competitiveness: Evidence from German Manufacturing Firms," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 365-393, July.
    16. Wadensjö, Eskil, 2013. "Labor Market Transparency," IZA Discussion Papers 7658, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Peter Cappelli & J. R. Keller, 2012. "A Study of the Extent and Potential Causes of Alternative Employment Arrangements," NBER Working Papers 18376, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Alexander Schiersch, 2015. "TFP, Labor Productivity and the (Un)observed Labor Input: Temporary Agency Work," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1532, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    19. Matthew Dey & Susan Houseman & Anne Polivka, 2006. "Manufacturers' Outsourcing to Employment Services," Upjohn Working Papers 07-132, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    20. Henna Busk & Christine Dauth & Elke J. Jahn, 2017. "Do Changes in Regulation Affect Temporary Agency Workers’ Job Satisfaction?," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 514-544, July.
    21. Kyyrä, Tomi & Parrotta, Pierpaolo & Rosholm, Michael, 2013. "The effect of receiving supplementary UI benefits on unemployment duration," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 122-133.
    22. Jahn, Elke J. & Rosholm, Michael, 2010. "Looking Beyond the Bridge: How Temporary Agency Employment Affects Labor Market Outcomes," Working Papers 10-6, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    temporary agency work; competitiveness; firm performance; manufacturing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • L60 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bwu:schdps:sdp11006. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Frank Hoffmann (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://elpub.bib.uni-wuppertal.de .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.