Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/67288 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 6973
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Using a matched employer-employee data-set, we analyze how workforce diversity in terms of cultural background, education and demographic characteristics affects the productivity of firms in Denmark. Implementing a structural estimation of the firms' production function (Ackerberg et al. 2006), we find that labor diversity in education significantly enhances a firm's value added. Conversely, diversity in ethnicity and demographics induces negative effects on firm productivity. Therefore, the negative effects, which are derived from the communication and integration costs associated with a more culturally and demographically diverse workforce, seem to outweigh the positive effects of creativity and knowledge spillovers.
Subjects: 
labor diversity
skill complementarity
communication barriers
total factor productivity
JEL: 
J15
J16
J24
J61
J81
L20
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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