The relationship between firm productivity, wage level and employees’ age: A sectoral perspective

Abstract

We examine how a firm’s productivity level, wage level and productivity–wage gap are related to the age composition of its employees. Panel data of Norwegian firms in the following three sectors are used: the manufacturing sector, the WRT (wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles) sector, and the PST (professional, scientific and technical activities) sector. Three hypotheses are formulated: a firm’s productivity level is negatively affected by its proportion of the oldest workers (H1), a firm’s wage level is negatively affected by its proportion of the youngest workers, and positively affected by its proportion of the oldest workers (H2), and a firm’s productivity–wage gap is positively affected by its proportion of the youngest workers, and negatively affected by its proportion of the oldest workers (H3). Based on GMM regression in first differences, the estimation results give some support for (a) the hypothesis H1 for the WRT sector, but no support for the manufacturing and PST sectors, (b) H2 for the manufacturing and PST sectors, but little support for the WRT sector, and (c) H3 for the PST sector, but no support for the manufacturing and WRT sectors. The GMM results show that a firm’s productivity–wage gap is positively affected by the proportion of the youngest age group in the PST sector, while there is a non-significant effect in the manufacturing and WRT sectors. The proportion of the oldest age group has a non-significant effect on this gap in each of the three sectors. The results indicate that there is no clear evidence of an age-related productivity–wage gap.