Should Human Capital Development Programs be Mandatory or Voluntary? Evidence from a Field Experiment on Mentorship
References
- (1999) The structure of wages and investment in general training. J. Political Econom. 107(3):539–572.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2015) Site selection bias in program evaluation. Quart. J. Econom. 130(3):1117–1165.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2017) Taking stock of two relational aspects of organizational life: Tracing the history and shaping the future of socialization and mentoring research. J. Appl. Psych. 102(3):324–337.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2008) Multiple inference and gender differences in the effects of early intervention: A reevaluation of the abecedarian, perry preschool, and early training projects. J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 103(484):1481–1495.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2025) Meaning at work. NBER Working Paper No. 33843, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
- (2013) Team incentives: Evidence from a firm-level experiment. J. Eur. Econom. Assoc. 11(5):1079–1114.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2020) Ceo behavior and firm performance. J. Political Econom. 128(4):1325–1369.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (1975) Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis, with Special Reference to Education (University of Chicago Press, Chicago).Google Scholar
- (2022) Strong employers and weak employees: How does employer concentration affect wages? J. Hum. Res. 57(S):S200‒S250.Google Scholar
- (2019) Promotions and the peter principle. Quart. J. Econom. 134(4):2085–2134.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2024) Potential and the gender promotions gap. Preprint, submitted April 2, http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4747175.Google Scholar
- (2003) Managing with style: The effect of managers on firm policies. Quart. J. Econom. 118(4):1169–1208.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2007) Measuring and explaining management practices across firms and countries. Quart. J. Econom. 122(4):1351–1408.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2016) Management as a technology? NBER Working Paper No. 22327, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2015) Does working from home work? Evidence from a Chinese experiment. Quart. J. Econom. 130(1):165–218.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2014) Jeea-fbbva lecture 2013: The new empirical economics of management. J. Eur. Econom. Assoc. 12(4):835–876.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2019) What drives differences in management practices? Amer. Econom. Rev. 109(5):1648–1683.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2021) Virtual watercoolers: A field experiment on virtual synchronous interactions and performance of organizational newcomers. Harvard Business School Technology & Operations Mgt. Unit Working Paper (21-125).Google Scholar
- (2023) Generative AI at work. NBER Working Paper No. 31161, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
- (2013) From natural variation to optimal policy? The importance of endogenous peer group formation. Econometrica 81(3):855–882.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2019) Who’s the boss? The effect of strong leadership on employee turnover. J. Econom. Behav. Organ. 159:323–343.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2022) Fostering psychological safety in teams: Evidence from an RCT. Preprint, submitted June 20, http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4141538.Google Scholar
- (2022) Selection with variation in diagnostic skill: Evidence from radiologists. Quart. J. Econom. 137(2):729–783.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2018) Signaling, shame, and silence in social learning. NBER Working Paper No. 25169, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
- (2019) When does advice impact startup performance? Strategic Management J. 40(3):331–356.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2014) Measuring the impacts of teachers II: Teacher value-added and student outcomes in adulthood. Amer. Econom. Rev. 104(9):2633–2679.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2017) Peer effects in the workplace. Amer. Econom. Rev. 107(2):425–456.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2021) Building a productive workforce: The role of structured management practices. Management Sci. 67(12):7308–7321.Link, Google Scholar
- (2014) Time allocation and task juggling. Amer. Econom. Rev. 104(2):609–623.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2017) Diagnosing expertise: Human capital, decision making, and performance among physicians. J. Labor Econom. 35(1):1–43.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2020) Understanding doctor decision making: The case of depression treatment. Econometrica. 88(3):847–878.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2019) Do general managerial skills spur innovation? Management Sci. 65(2):459–476.Link, Google Scholar
- (2014) Peer effects in program participation. Amer. Econom. Rev. 104(7):2049–2074.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2022) More women in tech? Evidence from a field experiment addressing social identity. Management Sci. 68(5):3196–3218.Link, Google Scholar
- (2024) Unwilling to reskill? Evidence from a survey experiment with jobseekers.Google Scholar
- (2012) Testing for altruism and social pressure in charitable giving. Quart. J. Econom. 127(1):1–56. ISSN 00335533, https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjr050.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2014) School choice, school quality, and postsecondary attainment. Amer. Econom. Rev. 104(3):991–1013.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2025) Training within firms. NBER Working Paper No. 33670, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
- (2011) Does the stock market fully value intangibles? Employee satisfaction and equity prices. J. Financial Econom. 101(3):621–640.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2014) Psychological safety: The history, renaissance, and future of an interpersonal construct. Annual Rev. Org. Psych. Org. Behav. 1(1):23–43.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2023) The power of proximity to coworkers: Training for tomorrow or productivity today? NBER Working Paper No. 31880, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
- (2018) Organization design and firm heterogeneity: Towards an integrated research agenda for strategy. Organization Design (Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, UK), 229–252.Google Scholar
- (2025) The value of leadership: Evidence from a large-scale field experiment. Leadership Quart. 36(3):101869.Google Scholar
- (2016) Sources of geographic variation in health care: Evidence from patient migration. Quart. J. Econom. 131(4):1681–1726.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2022) Middle managers, personnel turnover, and performance: A long-term field experiment in a retail chain. Management Sci. 68(1):211–229.Link, Google Scholar
- (2023) What do employee referral programs do? Measuring the direct and overall effects of a management practice. J. Political Econom. 131(3):633–686.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2017) Team incentives and performance: Evidence from a retail chain. Amer. Econom. Rev. 107(8):2168–2203.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2019) Training and effort dynamics in apprenticeship. Amer. Econom. Rev. 109(11):3780–3812.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2013) What Do Managers Do? Exploring Persistent Performance Differences Among Seemingly Similar Enterprises (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ), 680–731.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2020) Can mentoring help female assistant professors in economics? An evaluation by randomized trial. AEA Papers Proc. 110:205–209.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2020) The impact of management practices on employee productivity: A field experiment with airline captains. J. Political Econom. 128(4):1195–1233.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2018) Doing well by making well: The impact of corporate wellness programs on employee productivity. Management Sci. 64(11):4967–4987.Link, Google Scholar
- (2009) Finding anchors in the storm: Mentors. Wall Street J. (January 27), https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123301451869117603?msockid=11735632ab496b95126d43ceaa2b6a03.Google Scholar
- (1997) Matching as an econometric evaluation estimator: Evidence from evaluating a job training programme. Rev. Econom. Stud. 64(4):605–654.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2015) Peer effects on worker output in the laboratory generalize to the field. Science. 350(6260):545–549.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2023) Reputational concerns and advice-seeking at work. Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper, No. 23-17, Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich, Germany.Google Scholar
- (2007) Women helping women, men helping women? Same-gender mentoring, initial job placements, and early career publishing success for economics PhDs. Amer. Econom. Rev. 97(2):422–426.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2020) Worker overconfidence: Field evidence and implications for employee turnover and firm profits. Quant. Econom. 11(1):315–348.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2024) People, practices, and productivity: A review of new advances in personnel economics. NBER Working Paper No. 32849, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
- (2021) People management skills, employee attrition, and manager rewards: An empirical analysis. J. Political Econom. 129(1):243–285.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2017) Discretion in hiring. Quart. J. Econom. 133(2):765–800.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2015) Framing manipulations in contests: A natural field experiment. J. Econom. Behav. Organ. 118:372–382.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2012) The behavioralist visits the factory: Increasing productivity using simple framing manipulations. Management Sci. 58(12):2151–2167.Link, Google Scholar
- (2022) Persistent overconfidence and biased memory: Evidence from managers. Amer. Econom. Rev. 112(10):3141–3175.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2023) Improving regulatory effectiveness through better targeting: Evidence from OSHA. Amer. Econom. J. Appl. Econom. 15(4):30–67.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2019) What do workplace wellness programs do? Evidence from the Illinois workplace wellness study. Quart. J. Econom. 134(4):1747–1791.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2009) Observing unobservables: Identifying information asymmetries with a consumer credit field experiment. Econometrica 77(6):1993–2008.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2014) The cost of high-powered incentives: Employee gaming in enterprise software sales. J. Labor Econom. 32(2):199–227.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2012) Incentive schemes, sorting and behavorial biases of employees: Experimental evidence. Amer. Econom. J. Microeconom. 4(2):184–214.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2015) Capital account opening and wage inequality. Rev. Financial Stud. 28(6):1555–1587.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2012) Sorting in experiments with application to social preferences. Amer. Econom. J. Appl. Econom. 4(1):136–163.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2016) Making do with less: Working harder during recessions. J. Labor Econom. 34(S1):S333–S360.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2015) The value of bosses. J. Labor Econom. 33(4):823–861.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2009) Training, wages, and sample selection: Estimating sharp bounds on treatment effects. Rev. Econom. Stud. 76(3):1071–1102.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2025) Hiring as exploration. Rev. Economic Stud. rdaf040.Google Scholar
- (2020) Non est disputandum de generalizability? A glimpse into the external validity trial. NBER Working Paper No. 27535, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2022) The Voltage Effect: How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale (Crown Currency, New York).Google Scholar
- (2014) The effect of high-performing mentors on junior officer promotion in the us army. J. Labor Econom. 32(2):229–258.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2009) Peers at work. Amer. Econom. Rev. 99(1):112–145.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2023) Managers and productivity in retail. NBER Working Paper No. 31192, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
- (2023) Making the invisible hand visible: Managers and the allocation of workers to jobs. Working paper, Chicago Booth.Google Scholar
- (2024) Labor and corporate finance. Handbook of Corporate Finance (Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK), 647–673.Google Scholar
- (1998) Fiscal year ends and nonlinear incentive contracts: The effect on business seasonality. Quart. J. Econom. 113(1):149–185.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2011) Personnel economics: Hiring and incentives. Handbook of Labor Econom. 4:1769–1823.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2020) Effects of a workplace wellness program on employee health, health beliefs, and medical use: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA Internal Med. 180(7):952–960.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2008) Does mentoring reduce turnover and improve skills of new employees? Evidence from teachers in New York City. NBER Working Paper No. 13868, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
- (2022) The stock market value of human capital creation. Harvard Business School Accounting & Management Unit Working Paper (21–047).Google Scholar
- Ruggles S, Flood S, Sobek M, Backman D, Cooper G, Rivera Drew JA, Richards S, Rogers R, Schroeder J, Williams KCW (2025) IPUMS USA: Version 16.0 [American Community Survey dataset], IPUMS, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
- (2020) Workplace knowledge flows. Quart. J. Econom. 135(3):1635–1680.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2019) Consider this: Training, wages, and the enforceability of covenants not to compete. ILR Rev. 72(4):783–817.Crossref, Google Scholar
- Statista (2022) Total training expenditures in the United States from 2012 to 2022 (in billion U.S. dollars) [graph]. Accessed January 29, 2023, https://www-statista-com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/statistics/788521/training-expenditures-united-states/.Google Scholar
- (2011) What determines productivity? J. Econom. Lit. 49(2):326–365.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2018) The demand for effective charter schools. J. Political Econom. 126(6):2179–2223.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2000) In search of new foundations. J. Finance 55(4):1623–1653.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2021) Incentivizing learning-by-doing: The role of compensation schemes. Workplace Productivity and Management Practices , 139–178 (Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, UK).Crossref, Google Scholar

