Uschi Backes-Gellner, Tobias Schlegel, Ereilt uns das Schicksal des Arbeitspferdes? Die Digitalisierung und ihre Folgen für die Beschaeftigung in der Schweiz, In: Lohnbuch Schweiz 2018, s.n., Zurich, p. 45 - 53, 2018. (Book Chapter)
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Uschi Backes-Gellner, Agnes Bäker, Kerstin Pull, The opportunity costs of becoming a dean: Does leadership in academia crowd out research?, Schmalenbach Business Review, Vol. 70 (2), 2018. (Journal Article)
Researchers in academia typically perform different tasks: research, teaching and services to the scientific community. We analyze the opportunity costs in terms of a potentially reduced publication productivity associated with becoming a dean in the German institutional setting where deans are non-professional expert-leaders who temporarily take the dean position. Theoretically, we distinguish between two different effects that relate deanship and publication productivity: a resource effect where publication productivity during and—as a result of potentially having developed a taste for service—also post deanship decrease as a result of a reduction of the available time for research and a self-selection effect where pre-deanship publication productivity is lower than that of peers who are not about to become dean. Based on a dataset of 1110 business and economics researchers from German-speaking universities, we find evidence for a resource effect with leadership in academia reducing research productivity during and also post deanship. We find no evidence of a negative self-selection effect in the sense of less successful researchers being more likely to take the position of a dean. Reduced research productivity during and post deanship as compared to those researchers that never became dean is driven by those researchers who become dean in later periods of their career, i. e., presumably by those who deliberately shift their focus away from research and towards a stronger engagement in the scientific community in their late career years. Early career deans, on the contrary, seem to see their deanship more as a transitory role and are able to compensate the reduced resources during deanship, and they also do not suffer from a reduced publication productivity post deanship. |
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Uschi Backes-Gellner, Holger Herz, Michael Kosfeld, Yvonne Oswald, Do Preferences and Biases predict Life Outcomes? Evidence from Education and Labor Market Entry Decisions, In: Swiss Leading House Economics of Education Working Paper, No. 144, 2018. (Working Paper)
Evidence suggests that acquiring human capital is related to better life outcomes, yet young peoples' decisions to invest in or stop acquiring human capital are still poorly understood. We investigate the role of time and reference-dependent preferences in such decisions. Using a data set that is unique in its combination of real-world observations on student outcomes and experimental data on economic preferences, we find that a low degree of long-run patience is a key determinant of dropping out of upper-secondary education. Further, for students who finish education we show that one month before termination of their program, present-biased students are less likely to have concrete continuation plans while loss averse students are more likely to have a definite job offer already. Our findings provide fresh evidence on students' decision-making about human capital acquisition and labor market transition with important implications for education and labor market policy. |
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Peter Höschler, Simone Balestra, Uschi Backes-Gellner, The Development of non-cognitive skills in adolescence, Economics Letters, Vol. 163, 2018. (Journal Article)
We use a unique longitudinal data set to study the development of non-cognitive skills in adolescence. We measure – for the first time – the development over six years of the recently introduced non-cognitive skill “Grit.” We also measure the traditional Big Five personality traits. For Grit, we find significant within-person mean-level increases of about .5 standard deviation units for our sample of adolescent students. These increases are comparable with increases in the Big Five, where conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability also increase with similar magnitude. We show that these changes are heterogeneous and robust to reasonable measurement error. |
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Christian Rupietta, Johannes Meuer, Uschi Backes-Gellner, How do apprentices moderate the influence of organizational innovation on the technological innovation process?, In: Swiss Leading House Economics of Education Working Paper, No. 145, 2018. (Working Paper)
This paper contributes to the literature on non-monetary benefits of Vocational Education and Training (VET) by investigating its influence on a firm’s innovation process. While an increasing number of studies finds positive effects of VET on innovation in firms, the role that apprentices play in this mechanism has largely been unexplored. To analyze this role, we use the distinction between technological and organizational innovation, two complementary forms of innovation. When investigating the initiators of organizational innovation, to date, research has primarily focused on internal and external change agents at upper echelons. We conceptualize apprentices as hybrid (a combination of internal and external) change agents at lower echelons. We examine how apprentices in the Swiss VET system are key to integrating external knowledge (through school-based education) with internal knowledge (through on-the-job training) and moderating the influence of organizational innovation on technological innovation. Drawing on a sample of 1,240 firms from a representative Swiss Innovation Survey, we show that apprentices leverage the positive association between innovations in a firm’s business processes and organization of work with incremental innovations. With the description of a new mechanism that shows the significant role of apprentices on firms’ technological innovation activities and evidence for supportive associations between key variables, we contribute to the understanding of the influence of VET on innovation in firms. |
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Christian Eggenberger, Miriam Rinawi, Uschi Backes-Gellner, Occupational specificity: a new measurement based on training curricula and its effect on labor market outcomes, Labour Economics, Vol. 51, 2018. (Journal Article)
This paper proposes a new measurement for the specificity of occupations based on a content analysis of training curricula that we link to labor market demands. We apply Lazear's (2009) skill weights approach and test predictions on labor market outcomes derived from his theory. We find clear evidence of a trade-off between earning higher returns with more specific training and higher occupational mobility with less specific training. Our measure improves the micro-foundation of human capital specificity and provides an evidence-based approach to evaluate the specificity of training curricula. |
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Uschi Backes-Gellner, Christoph Böhringer, Uwe Cantner, Dietmar Harhoff, Ingrid Ott, Monika Schnitzer, EFI – Expertenkommission Forschung und Innovation: Gutachten zu Forschung, Innovation und technologischer Leistungsfähigkeit Deutschlands 2018, Buch- und Offsetdruckerei H. Heenemann, Berlin, 2018. (Book/Research Monograph)
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Uschi Backes-Gellner, Christoph Böhringer, Uwe Cantner, Dietmar Harhoff, Ingrid Ott, Monika Schnitzer, Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation - 2018 "Research, Innovation and Technological Performance in Germany", Buch- und Offsetdruckerei H. Heenemann, Berlin, 2018. (Book/Research Monograph)
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Christian Rupietta, Uschi Backes-Gellner, How firms' participation in apprenticeship training fosters knowledge diffusion and innovation, In: Swiss Leading House "Economics of Education" Working Paper, No. 74, 2018. (Working Paper)
Previous studies typically relate apprenticeship training or more generally Vocational Education and Training (VET) to training that is highly specific and that uses well-established technologies. Accordingly, apprenticeship training is typically not expected to have positive effects on innovation. In contrast, we argue in this paper that the type of dual apprenticeship training seen in Switzerland (or Germany) does create positive innovation effects due to these VET-systems' built-in and institutionalized curriculum development and updating processes. These processes ensure that firms participating in apprenticeship training gain access to knowledge that is close to the innovation frontier and that ultimately fosters innovation. We provide theoretical explanations of how this knowledge diffusion works and how it can help to generate innovation in participating firms. We use the Swiss VET system as one example and derive hypotheses about the relationship between firms' participation in apprenticeship training and their innovation outcomes. Empirical analyses support our hypotheses. In a VET system with a built-in curriculum-updating process like the one in Switzerland (or Germany), firms participating in apprenticeship training have higher innovation outcomes than do non-participating firms. |
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Veronika Blank, Demand for Skills on Regional Labor Markets and Individual Career Prospects – An Econometric Analysis for Switzerland, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2017. (Master's Thesis)
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Peter Höschler, Simone Balestra, Uschi Backes-Gellner, The Development of non-cognitive skills in adolescence, In: Swiss Leading House "Economics of Education" Working Paper, No. 138, 2017. (Working Paper)
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Uschi Backes-Gellner, Franziska Burkart, Harald Pfeifer, Firms as Producers vs. Consumers of Skills: An Optimal Inventory Strategy, In: UZH-UB-KOF Workshop. 2017. (Conference Presentation)
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Curdin Pfister, Different educational structures and their economic impact on individuals and the economy, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2017. (Dissertation)
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Uschi Backes-Gellner, Agnes Bäker, Kerstin Pull, The opportunity costs of becoming a dean: Does leadership in academia crowd out research?, In: UZH Business Working Paper Series, No. 379, 2017. (Working Paper)
Researchers in academia typically perform different tasks: research, teaching and services to the scientific community. We analyze the opportunity costs in terms of a potentially reduced publication productivity associated with becoming a dean in the German institutional setting where deans are non-professional expert-leaders who temporarily take the dean position. Theoretically, we distinguish between two different effects that relate deanship and publication productivity: a resource effect where publication productivity during and – as a result of potentially having developed a taste for service –also post deanship decrease as a result of a reduction of the available time for research and a self-selection effect where pre-deanship publication productivity is lower than that of peers who are not about to become dean. Based on a dataset of 1,110 business and economics researchers from German-speaking universities, we find evidence for a resource effect with leadership in academia reducing research productivity during and also post deanship. We find no evidence of a negative self-selection effect in the sense of less successful researchers being more likely to take the position of a dean. Reduced research productivity during and post deanship as compared to those researchers that never became dean is driven by those researchers who become dean in later periods of their career, i.e., presumably by those who deliberately shift their focus away from research and towards a stronger engagement in the scientific community in their late career years. Early career deans, on the contrary, seem to see their deanship more as a transitory role and are able to compensate the reduced resources during deanship, and they also do not suffer from a reduced publication productivity post deanship. |
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Peter Höschler, Uschi Backes-Gellner, The Relative Importance of Personal Characteristics for Job Offers, In: IAW Conference 2017 on Education, Skills, and the Economic Challenges of the Future. 2017. (Conference Presentation)
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Curdin Pfister, Miriam Rinawi, Dietmar Harhoff, Uschi Backes-Gellner, Regional Effects of Applied Research - Universities of Applied Sciences and Innovation, In: EPIP 2017 Conference Bordeaux, France. 2017. (Conference Presentation)
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Peter Höschler, Uschi Backes-Gellner, The Relative Importance of Personal Characteristics for Job Offers, In: IAREP Conference 2017, Rishon LeZion, Israel, International Association for Research in Economic Psychology. 2017. (Conference Presentation)
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Jason Blunier, Spillover Effects of Universities of Applied Sciences on the Labor Market: An Econometric Analysis of a Policy Reform in Switzerland, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2017. (Bachelor's Thesis)
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Uschi Backes-Gellner, Gudela Grote, Abraham Bernstein, Patrick Burkhalter, Nehmen Roboter uns die Arbeit weg?, In: Scientifica, Universität Zürich. 2017. (Conference Presentation)
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Uschi Backes-Gellner, Die digitale Zukunftsfähigkeit der Schweiz, In: Tag der Wirtschaft 2017. 2017. (Conference Presentation)
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