Is innovative firm behavior correlated with age and gender composition of the workforce?

Abstract

"This empirical research note documents the relationship between composition of a firm's workforce (with a special focus on age and gender) and its performance with respect to innovative activities (outlays and employment in research and development (R&D)) for a large representative sample of enterprises from manufacturing industries in Germany using unique newly available data. We find that firms with a higher share of older workers have significantly lower proportions of R&D outlays in total revenues and of R&D employment in total employment, whereas firms with a higher share of female employment seem to be more active in R&D." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Pfeifer, C. & Wagner, J. (2014): Is innovative firm behavior correlated with age and gender composition of the workforce? Evidence from a new type of data for German enterprises. In: Journal for labour market research, Vol. 47, No. 3, p. 223-231. DOI:10.1007/s12651-013-0137-y