SA-TIED seminar on worker mobility and productivity spillovers - an emerging market perspective

SA-TIED will hold a seminar on worker mobility and productivity spillovers - an emerging market perspective. The seminar will be given by Friedrich Kreuser under the work stream on Enterprise development for job creation and growth.

The seminar will take place at the National Treasury in Pretoria, South Africa, and is open to the public.

The seminar is based on the SA-TIED working paper, Worker mobility and productivity spillovers: An emerging market perspective, by Ayanda Hlatshwayo, Friedrich Kreuser, Carol Newman, and John Rand.

Abstract - Worker mobility and productivity spillovers: An emerging market perspective

This paper uses matched employer-employee data from South Africa to examine the extent to which technology transfers between firms through the hiring of workers. Allowing for differential spillovers based on observable technology differences between sending and receiving firms, we find strong evidence for positive productivity spillovers through worker mobility. In contrast to previous studies set in more advanced economies, our results suggest that negative spillovers can occur.

Firms that hire workers from less productive firms experience a decline in productivity in the following year compared with similar firms that do not hire any workers. This, we suggest, may be explained by the high skills deficit in the South African labour market, and an important mechanism for technology transfers in the future may be driven by investments in firm-level training initiatives.

*Please bring along an ID and arrive 15 minutes before the seminar to facilitate security procedures.