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Contribution Details

Type Journal Article
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title Employment of R&D personnel after an educational supply shock: Effects of the introduction of Universities of Applied Sciences in Switzerland
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Patrick Lehnert
  • Curdin Pfister
  • Uschi Backes-Gellner
Item Subtype Original Work
Refereed Yes
Status Published in final form
Language
  • English
Journal Title Labour Economics
Publisher Elsevier
Geographical Reach international
ISSN 0927-5371
Volume 66
Page Range 101883
Date 2020
Abstract Text We examine whether firms increase their employment of R&D personnel in response to an expansion of tertiary education institutions, i.e., a supply shock of skilled labor. We use the staggered introduction of Universities of Applied Sciences (UASs) in Switzerland as a quasi-natural experiment to identify causal effects. Firms located near a new UAS campus experience an education-driven labor supply shock in the form of UAS graduates newly entering the local labor market. Using a large representative firm survey and applying a difference-in-differences model, we find that this labor supply shock has positive effects: first, on the percentage of R&D personnel relative to total employment and, second, on the percentage of total wages paid to them. These effects are driven by both very small firms (five to nine employees) and very large ones (5,000 or more). Our findings suggest that a tertiary education expansion can stimulate innovation activities by increasing the personnel resources devoted to R&D.
Related URLs
Digital Object Identifier 10.1016/j.labeco.2020.101883
Other Identification Number merlin-id:19882
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