IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp404.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Human Capital Spill-Overs Within the Workplace

Author

Listed:
  • Battu, Harminder

    (University of Aberdeen)

  • Belfield, Clive R.

    (Queens College, CUNY)

  • Sloane, Peter J.

    (Swansea University)

Abstract

An individual’s human capital has a strong influence on earnings. Yet individual, worker-level estimations of earnings rarely include the characteristics of co-workers or detailed firm-level controls. In this paper, we use a unique matched worker–workplace dataset to estimate the effect on own earnings of co-workers’ education. Our results, using the 1998 UK Workplace Employee Relations Survey, show significant effects. Own earnings premia fall slightly, but there is an independent, significantly positive effect from average workplace education. We also test for interactions between own and co-worker education levels. However, these interactions appear negative: education is valued less highly at workplaces where education levels are already high. This result runs counter to our theoretical prediction.

Suggested Citation

  • Battu, Harminder & Belfield, Clive R. & Sloane, Peter J., 2001. "Human Capital Spill-Overs Within the Workplace," IZA Discussion Papers 404, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp404
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp404.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steve Machin & Anna Vignoles, 2005. "Education Policy in the UK," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 3(04), pages 64-74, January.
    2. Machin, Stephen & Stewart, Mark, 1996. "Trade Unions and Financial Performance," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 48(2), pages 213-241, April.
    3. Michael Kremer, 1993. "The O-Ring Theory of Economic Development," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(3), pages 551-575.
    4. repec:bla:econom:v:64:y:1997:i:253:p:119-36 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. John M. Abowd & Francis Kramarz & David N. Margolis, 1999. "High Wage Workers and High Wage Firms," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 67(2), pages 251-334, March.
    6. Dolton, Peter & Vignoles, Anna, 2000. "The incidence and effects of overeducation in the U.K. graduate labour market," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 179-198, April.
    7. Borjas, George J & Bronars, Stephen G & Trejo, Stephen J, 1992. "Assimilation and the Earnings of Young Internal Migrants," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 74(1), pages 170-175, February.
    8. Steve Machin & Anna Vignoles, 2005. "Education Policy in the UK," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 3(4), pages 64-74, 01.
    9. Kenneth R. Troske, 1999. "Evidence On The Employer Size-Wage Premium From Worker-Establishment Matched Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(1), pages 15-26, February.
    10. Rauch James E., 1993. "Productivity Gains from Geographic Concentration of Human Capital: Evidence from the Cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 380-400, November.
    11. Idson, Todd L & Kahane, Leo H, 2000. "Team Effects on Compensation: An Application to Salary Determination in the National Hockey League," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 38(2), pages 345-357, April.
    12. Elchanan Cohn & John Addison, 1998. "The Economic Returns to Lifelong Learning in OECD Countries," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(3), pages 253-307.
    13. Ashenfelter, Orley & Harmon, Colm & Oosterbeek, Hessel, 1999. "A review of estimates of the schooling/earnings relationship, with tests for publication bias," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 453-470, November.
    14. Harmon, Colm & Walker, Ian, 1995. "Estimates of the Economic Return to Schooling for the United Kingdom," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(5), pages 1278-1286, December.
    15. H. Battu & C. R. Belfield & P. J. Sloane, 1999. "Overeducation Among Graduates: a cohort view," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 21-38.
    16. Dearden, Lorraine, 1999. "The effects of families and ability on men's education and earnings in Britain1," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 551-567, November.
    17. Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf & Zweimuller, Josef, 1997. "Unequal Assignment and Unequal Promotion in Job Ladders," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(1), pages 43-71, January.
    18. Edward P. Lazear, 2000. "Economic Imperialism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(1), pages 99-146.
    19. Erica L. Groshen, 1991. "Sources of Intra-Industry Wage Dispersion: How Much Do Employers Matter?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(3), pages 869-884.
    20. Paul M. Romer, 1994. "The Origins of Endogenous Growth," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 3-22, Winter.
    21. Blundell, Richard, et al, 2000. "The Returns to Higher Education in Britain: Evidence from a British Cohort," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(461), pages 82-99, February.
    22. Hartog, Joop & Oosterbeek, Hessel, 1998. "Health, wealth and happiness: why pursue a higher education?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 245-256, June.
    23. Andrew E. Clark, 1996. "Job Satisfaction in Britain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 34(2), pages 189-217, June.
    24. Barron, John M & Berger, Mark C & Black, Dan A, 1997. "How Well Do We Measure Training?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(3), pages 507-528, July.
    25. Kenneth R. Troske & Kimberly Bayard, 1999. "Examining the Employer-Size Wage Premium in the Manufacturing, Retail Trade, and Service Industries Using Employer-Employee Matched Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 99-103, May.
    26. Idson, Todd L., 1995. "Team production effects on earnings," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 197-203, August.
    27. Tsang, Mun Chiu, 1987. "The impact of underutilization of education on productivity: A case study of the U.S. Bell companies," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 239-254, June.
    28. Lorraine Dearden, 1998. "Ability, families, education and earnings in Britain," IFS Working Papers W98/14, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    29. Clive R. Belfield, 2000. "Economic Principles for Education," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2159.
    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. Hipólito Simón, 2010. "International Differences in Wage Inequality: A New Glance with European Matched Employer–Employee Data," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 48(2), pages 310-346, June.
    2. Asteriou, Dimitrios & Monastiriotis, Vassilis, 2007. "What do unions do at the large scale? Macro-economic evidence from a panel of OECD countries," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 7(1), pages 1-20, May.
    3. Alvarez, J. & Forrest, D. & Sanz, I. & Tena, J.D., 2011. "Impact of importing foreign talent on performance levels of local co-workers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 287-296, June.
    4. Francisco Alcalá & Pedro Hernández, 2010. "Firms’ main market, human capital, and wages," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 1(4), pages 433-458, September.
    5. Christophe J. NORDMAN & François-Charles WOLFF, 2012. "On-The-Job Learning And Earnings: Comparative Evidence From Morocco And Senegal," Region et Developpement, Region et Developpement, LEAD, Universite du Sud - Toulon Var, vol. 35, pages 151-176.
    6. De Grip, Andries & Sauermann, Jan & Sieben, Inge, 2016. "The role of peers in estimating tenure-performance profiles: Evidence from personnel data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 126(PA), pages 39-54.
    7. David C. Maré, 2003. "Ideas for Growth?," Working Papers 03_19, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    8. Tushar Kanti Nandi, 2006. "Employee Participation and Wages: An Empirical Investigation with Selectivity Correction," Department of Economics University of Siena 483, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    9. Travkin, Pavel, 2014. "The impact of the on-the-job training on Russian worker’s salary: The effect of abilities approach," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 33(1), pages 51-70.
    10. Mok, Penny & Mason, Geoff & Stevens, Philip & Timmins, Jason, 2012. "A Good Worker is Hard to Find: Skills Shortages in New Zealand Firms," Occasional Papers 12/5, Ministry of Economic Development, New Zealand.
    11. Pavel V. Travkin, 2014. "The Returns To Training In Russia: A Difference-In-Differences Analysis," HSE Working papers WP BRP 56/EC/2014, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    12. Marcos E. Domínguez Viera, 2011. "Does the Impact of Oportunidades Program Increases in Highly Competitive Regions?," Ensayos Revista de Economia, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Facultad de Economia, vol. 0(2), pages 79-111, November.
    13. Metcalfe, Renuka & Sloane, Peter J., 2007. "Human Capital Spillovers and Economic Performance in the Workplace in 2004: Some British Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 2774, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Aniela Wirz, 2008. "Private returns to education versus education spill-over effects," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 315-342, March.
    15. Alison L Booth & Gylfi Zoega, 2005. "Worker Heterogeneity, Intra-firm Externalities and Wage Compression," Birkbeck Working Papers in Economics and Finance 0515, Birkbeck, Department of Economics, Mathematics & Statistics.
    16. Clive Belfield, 2005. "Workforce gender effects on firm performance and workers' pay: evidence for the UK," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(8), pages 885-891.
    17. Alcala, Francisco & Hernandez, Pedro J., 2005. "Firm characteristics, labor sorting, and wages," MPRA Paper 1226, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 17 Nov 2006.

    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. Harminder Battu & Clive R. Belfield & Peter J. Sloane, 2003. "Human Capital Spillovers within the Workplace: Evidence for Great Britain," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 65(5), pages 575-594, December.
    2. Keith A. Bender & John S. Heywood, 2009. "Educational Mismatch among Ph.D.s: Determinants and Consequences," NBER Chapters, in: Science and Engineering Careers in the United States: An Analysis of Markets and Employment, pages 229-255, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Colm Harmon & Hessel Oosterbeek & Ian Walker, 2003. "The Returns to Education: Microeconomics," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(2), pages 115-156, April.
    4. Lane, Julia I. & Salmon, Laurie A. & Spletzer, James R., 2007. "Establishment Wage Differentials," Working Papers 403, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    5. Luis Vila & Belen Garcia-Mora, 2005. "Education and the Determinants of Job Satisfaction," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 409-425.
    6. Naderi, A. & Mace, J., 2003. "Education and earnings: a multilevel analysis: A case study of the manufacturing sector in Iran," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 143-156, April.
    7. Clive Belfield, 2005. "Workforce gender effects on firm performance and workers' pay: evidence for the UK," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(8), pages 885-891.
    8. Majumdar, Sumit K., 2010. "Institutional changes, firm size and wages in the telecommunications sector," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 201-217, July.
    9. Josef Falkinger & Volker Grossmann, 2003. "Workplaces in the Primary Economy and Wage Pressure in the Secondary Labor Market," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 159(3), pages 523-544, September.
    10. Philippe Aghion & Antonin Bergeaud & Richard Blundell & Rachel Griffith, 2019. "The Innovation Premium to Soft Skills in Low-Skilled Occupations," Working papers 739, Banque de France.
    11. Alexander Muravyev, 2007. "Firm Size, Wages and Unobserved Skills: Evidence from Dual Job Holdings in the UK," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 681, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    12. Francis Teal & Måns Söderbom, 2002. "Does firm size really affect earnings?," Economics Series Working Papers WPS/2002-08, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    13. David S. Kaplan & Brooks Pierce, 2005. "Firmwide Versus Establishment-Specific Labor Market Practices," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(3), pages 569-578, August.
    14. Wheeler, Christopher H., 2006. "Productivity and the geographic concentration of industry: The role of plant scale," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 313-330, May.
    15. Baert, Stijn & Cockx, Bart & Verhaest, Dieter, 2013. "Overeducation at the start of the career: Stepping stone or trap?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 123-140.
    16. Richard Blundell & Lorraine Dearden & Barbara Sianesi, 2003. "Evaluating the impact of education on earnings in the UK: Models, methods and results from the NCDS," IFS Working Papers W03/20, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    17. Jane Osburn, 2011. "A Latent Variable Approach to Examining the Effects of HR Policies on the Inter- and Intra-Establishment Wage and Employment Structure: A Study of Two Precision Manufacturing Industries," Working Papers 451, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    18. Angel de la Fuente & Antonio Ciccone, 2003. "Human capital in a global and knowledge-based economy," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 562.03, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    19. repec:kap:iaecre:v:11:y:2005:i:1:p:93-109 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Volker Grossmann, 2003. "Managerial Job Assignment and Imperfect Competition in Asymmetric Equilibrium," CESifo Working Paper Series 914, CESifo.
    21. Bratti, Massimiliano & Naylor, Robin & Smith, Jeremy, 2005. "Variations in the Wage Returns to a First Degree: Evidence from the British Cohort Study 1970," IZA Discussion Papers 1631, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    workplace performance; human capital; Educational economics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • J4 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets

    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:iza:izadps:dp404. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    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.