Freeman RB.
“Employee and Citizen Ownership of Business Capital in the Age of AI Robots". CSR und Mitarbeiterbeteiligung. 2018.
Publisher's VersionAbstractThis paper seeks to convince you that the best response to the coming dominance of AI robots in the world of work is to expand both employee ownership of firms and citizen ownership of business capital more broadly. Section 1 analyzes the likely effects of advances in AI robot technologies on the comparative advantage of machines versus humans in high-value-added work and the consequences for wages and salaries and income inequality. Section 2 argues that the best way to assure that living standards increase for all in the age of AI robots is through enhanced employee ownership and greater citizens’ stake in business capital, distributing capital income far more widely than today.
Xie Q, Freeman RB.
Bigger Than You Thought: China's Contribution to Scientific Publications. 2018.
Publisher's VersionAbstractFrom 2000 to 2016 China increased its scientific publications in the international journals indexed by Scopus to become the largest contributor to global science, accounting for about 23% of journal articles adjusted for the Chinese share of addresses or names on publications. Publications with all-China addresses contributed the most to the increase, followed by cross-country collaborations and papers by Chinese-named researchers outside the country. The same period also saw a huge increase in scientific publications in Chinese language journals not indexed in Scopus. We estimate that while Chinese language papers gain about 1/5th as many citations as non-Chinese (largely English) papers in Scopus they are so numerous that even valued as making 1/5th the contribution of a Scopus paper, China accounts for 36% of global scientific papers defined as Scopus papers and China language equivalent papers and for 37% of citations to those papers. China's move to the forefront of scientific inquiry makes it a key driver of the direction of scientific and technological progress and of the knowledge-based economies of the foreseeable future.
Freeman RB, Barth E, Davis J.
"Augmenting the Human Capital Earnings Equation with Measures of Where People Work". In: Firms and the Distribution of Income: The Roles of Productivity and Luck. University of Chicago Press for NBER ; 2018.
Doucouliagos H, Freeman RB, Laroche P, Stanley TD.
“How Credible is Trade Union Research? Forty Years of Evidence on the Monopoly-Voice Trade-Off”. Industrial and Labor Relations Review. 2018;71 (2) :287-305.
Publisher's VersionAbstractIn this article, the authors assess the credibility of research that has
tested the theoretical contests between the monopoly and the collective
voice model of unions developed by Freeman and Medoff in
What Do Unions Do? The authors go beyond prior analyses by examining
more than 2,000 estimates that consider the effects of unions
on a broad range of organizational and individual outcomes, including
productivity, productivity growth, capital investment, profits, and
job satisfaction. They advance our understanding of the current
empirical findings and credibility of this research by using metastatistical
analysis to evaluate research quality, publication selection
bias, statistical power, and heterogeneity. The authors conclude that
compared to other areas of economics, research on union effects
has lower bias but larger problems of statistical power. They argue
that Freeman and Medoff’s monopoly–collective voice model helped
produce more credible results, and they suggest ways to reduce the
power and heterogeneity problems in existing research.
how_credible_is_trade_union_research_40_years_of_evidence_ilr-review_doi_10.1177_0019793917751144.pdf Salzman H.
U.S. Engineering in a Global Economy. (
Freeman RB). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press for NBER; 2018 pp. 297.
Publisher's VersionAbstractThe labor market for specialists in STEM jobs is a complex and controversial topic for economists, labor market researchers, and policy makers. U.S. Engineering in a Global Economy continues a long tradition of research by the NBER into both the supply and demand sides of the engineering job market, while also expanding the scope beyond the United States to consider the practice of engineering and innovation in a global economy. Contributors draw on the most up-to-date data on engineering education and practice to explore the challenges of developing an engineering workforce that can contribute substantially to the innovation driving modern economic growth. These authors highlight what economists and labor market researchers have learned and identify issues that might be addressed in future research, including a labor market that is not optimally employing STEM qualified workers in their field of training, and the ways in which US students, firms, and educational institutions are responding to increased competition in the global economy.
This book examines both the demand and supply side of the engineering job market in the United States and the practice of engineering and innovation in a global economy. The authors provide assessments of engineering education, engineering practice, and careers which can inform science and engineering educational institutions, funding agencies, and policy makers about the challenges facing the U.S. in developing its engineering workforce in the global economy.
us_eng_in_global_econ_abstract_and_keywords-uchicago_7.6.17.pdf Barth E, Davis JC, Freeman RB, Wang A.
"The Effects of Scientists and Engineers on Productivity and Earnings at the Establishment Where They Work,”. In: U.S. Engineering in a Global Economy. Chicago : University of Chicago Press ; 2018.
Publisher's VersionAbstractThis paper uses linked establishment-firm-employee data to examine the relationship between the scientists and engineers proportion (SEP) of employment, and productivity and labor earnings. We show that: (1) most scientists and engineers in industry are employed in establishments producing goods or services, and do not perform research and development (R&D); (2) productivity is higher in manufacturing establishments with higher SEP, and increases with increases in SEP; (3) employee earnings are higher in manufacturing establishments with higher SEP, and increase substantially for employees who move to establishments with higher SEP, but only modestly for employees within an establishment when SEP increases in the establishment. The results suggest that the work of scientists and engineers in goods and services producing establishments is an important pathway for increasing productivity and earnings, separate and distinct from the work of scientists and engineers who perform R&D.
effects_of_s-e_on_prod_and_earnings_final-ms_vol-and-wp_june2017_bdfw.docx.pdf Barth E, Davis J, Freeman RB.
"Augmenting the Human Capital Earnings Equation with Measures of Where People Work," JOLE 36:S1 (2018), Special Issue on Firm Heterogeneity and Income Inequality. 2018;36 (S1).
AbstractWe augment standard log earnings eq1uations for workers in US manufacturing with variables reflecting measured and unmeasured attributes of their employer. Using panel employee-establishment data, we find that establishment-level employment, education of co-workers, capital equipment per worker, and firm-level R&D intensity affects earnings substantially. Unobserved characteristics of employers captured by employer fixed effects also contribute to the variance of log earnings, although less than unobserved characteristics of individuals captured by individual fixed effects. The observed and unobserved measures of employers mediate the effects of individual characteristics on earnings and increase earnings inequality through sorting of workers among establishments.
augmenting_human_capital_earnings_revised-ms-submit_wp_8-10-16.pdf Bryson A, Freeman RB.
The Role of Employee Stock Purchase Plans - Gift and Incentive? Evidence from a Multinational Corporation. BJIR. 2018 :1-21.
Publisher's VersionAbstractEmployee share purchase plans (ESPPs) give free or discounted shares of stock to workers who buy shares in the hope that the greater share ownership will retain workers, build loyalty and raise productivity, as in gift exchange models. Using measures of workers' organisational loyalty and sense of ownership in a multinational firm that puts ESPP at the heart of its compensation policy, we find that workers who join the ESPP have lower turnover intentions and do less on-the-job search than others, motivated in part by gift exchange reciprocity, and also respond to the group incentive of ownership with greater work effort, longer hours, and lower absence rates. Workers in workplaces with high perceived rates of ESPP participation are more likely to intervene against shirkers. The results appear robust to the selectivity of who joins the ESPP. The mix of gifting shares to workers who buy shares and the group incentive of ownership makes ESPPs a unique dual form of compensation.
role_of_employee_stock_purchase_plans_gift_or_incentive_final-ms_w-bryson_may2018.pdf