Unraveling the Age-Productivity Nexus: Confronting Perceptions of Employers and Employees
CentER Discussion Paper Series No. 2009-04
31 Pages Posted: 13 Jan 2009
Date Written: January 12, 2009
Abstract
What determines the perceived productivity of young and older workers? In this study we present evidence for (Dutch) employers and employees. By confronting the perceptions of employers and employees some remarkable similarities and differences are revealed. It turns out that productivity perceptions are biased by the age group to which one belongs and the position in the hierarchy in the organization. The young favor the young, the old favor the old and employers discount productivity compared to employees. However, there are also remarkable similarities across employer and employees. By distinguishing the various underlying dimensions of productivity of young and older workers we tested whether 'soft' skills and abilities within the organization are just as important as the 'hard' dimensions - cognitive and physically based skills - in the eye of employers and employees. It appears that employers and employees weight the soft and the hard dimensions of skills in a uniform way: hard skills are far more important than soft skills no matter whether the worker is old or young. By sharing the stereotypical images the problem of age discrimination may therefore not only be due to employers' behaviors and attitudes, but also due to those of employees.
Keywords: aging, stereotypes, productivity, employers
JEL Classification: D21, J24, J71, M51
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Changes in Relative Wages, 1963-1987: Supply and Demand Factors
By Lawrence F. Katz and Kevin M. Murphy
-
By Eli Berman, John Bound, ...
-
Computing Inequality: Have Computers Changed the Labor Market?
By David H. Autor, Lawrence F. Katz, ...
-
Information Technology, Workplace Organization and the Demand for Skilled Labor: Firm-Level Evidence
By Timothy Bresnahan, Erik Brynjolfsson, ...
-
Deunionization, Technical Change and Inequality
By Daron Acemoglu, Philippe Aghion, ...
-
The Skill Content of Recent Technological Change: An Empirical Exploration
By David H. Autor, Frank S. Levy, ...
-
The Skill Content of Recent Technological Change: An Empirical Exploration
By David H. Autor, Frank S. Levy, ...
-
How Computers Have Changed the Wage Structure: Evidence from Microdata, 1984-1989
-
Implications of Skill-Biased Technological Change: International Evidence
By Eli Berman, John Bound, ...