On the Allocation and Impacts of Managerial Training / Achyuta Adhvaryu, Emir Murathanoglu, Anant Nyshadham.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Adhvaryu, Achyuta.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Murathanoglu, Emir.

Nyshadham, Anant.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w31335.

NBER working paper series no. w31335

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2023.

Summary:

We study the allocation and productivity consequences of training production line supervisors in soft skills via a randomized controlled trial. Consistent with standard practice for training investments within firms, we asked middle managers -- who sit above supervisors in the hierarchy -- to nominate members of their supervisory team for training. Program access was randomized within these recommendation rankings. Highly recommended supervisors experienced no productivity gains; in contrast, less-recommended supervisors' productivity increased 12% relative to controls. This was not due to poor information or favoritism. Instead, consistent with the fact that supervisor turnover comes at a large effort cost to middle managers due to gaps in coverage and onboarding, middle managers prioritized retention over productivity impacts. Indeed, treated supervisors were 15% less likely to quit than controls; this gain was most pronounced for highly recommended supervisors. Misallocation of training can help explain the persistence of low managerial quality in firms.

Notes:

Print version record

June 2023.