Working Paper: NBER ID: w30224
Authors: Miguel Espinosa; Christopher T. Stanton
Abstract: Most organizations utilize hierarchies to facilitate specialization, with managers assisting workers on tasks beyond their capabilities. As workers gain skills, they require less help, freeing up manager time. In this paper, we estimate direct productivity treatment effects for individual workers and spillovers to managers after a randomly assigned training program for frontline workers in a Colombian government agency. Trained workers improved their individual production, while help requests to managers declined, enabling managers to focus on higher-value work. Accounting for vertical spillovers to managers meaningfully changes the organization's implied return on investment from training.
Keywords: Training; Productivity; Management; Hierarchies; Spillovers
JEL Codes: J24; L2; M5; M53
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Training (M53) | Worker Productivity (J29) |
| Training (M53) | Manager Productivity (D24) |
| Training (M53) | Vertical Spillovers to Managers (D29) |