Raffaella Sadun

Submission: Organizational Economics Working Group, Page 1 of 2 - MyNBER

The call for papers for the next @nber.org Organizational Economics Working Group is up!

We will meet in Cambridge, MA on November 13 and 14 2025.

Please submit your paper by September 1st 2025 at:
conference.nber.org/confsubmit/b...

📢 Stiamo cercando 1 Research Associate per un'esperienza di lavoro pre-doc all'#EvaluationLab del #FondoRepubblicaDigitale.

👉 www.fondorepubblicadigitale.it/posizioni_ap...

cc: @raffasadun.bsky.social @barbarabiasi.com @francedrago.bsky.social

Our work now published showing how better AI can improve both accuracy and diversity in hiring relative to supervised learning tools and status-quo human hiring.

In short: good management doesn’t just improve performance—it reshapes organizations.

With Rachel Schuh, John Hartley, @nickbloom.bsky.social and @johnvanreenen.bsky.social .

Full paper 👉 www.nber.org/papers/w33765

#economics #productivity #management #reallocation #research

Key takeaways:
— Well-managed firms buy, sell, open, and close more plants
— They pass on good practices to new and acquired units
— Banning M&A would lower GDP and management quality by ~15%
— About 20% of productivity gaps across countries are management-related

Management and Firm Dynamism Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

Just out: our new NBER working paper explores what happens when management is treated like a technology—something that spreads across firms, boosts productivity, and lowers the cost of change.

📢@cepr.org WE_ARE & EEA #womenineconomics committee announce joint virtual session:
Speaker: @raffasadun.bsky.social
Topic: Navigating Large Teams & Interdisciplinary Boundaries
🗓️Mon, June 9 @ 17:15 CEST
ℹ️https://bit.ly/44YA1RA
@womeninecon.bsky.social @ukwen.bsky.social
@isweconomics.bsky.social

🚨 We’re hiring! The Digital Reskilling Lab at Harvard is looking for a postdoctoral fellow to join our research on workforce development, labor markets and AI.

Apply here 👉 academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/14918

#EconJobs #Postdoc #FutureOfWork #AI #LaborEconomics #Harvard

Training within Firms Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

📄 Paper w/ Brayan Diaz, Andrea Neyra Nazarrett, Julian Ramirez, Raffaella Sadun, Jorge Tamayo
NBER Working Paper #33670
👉 www.nber.org/papers/w33670

So what’s the takeaway?

If you want training to work, you need more than money or policy.
You need middle managers who believe in people—and are trusted in return.

Why? We built a simple model:
Workers only invest in training if they trust that promotions will follow. That trust is manager-specific.
A good manager makes incentives real.

nd it went beyond training.

Teams led by HT managers:
✅ Performed better
✅ Were promoted more
✅ Had less absenteeism—even during major organizational changes.

These “High-Training” (HT) managers didn’t get paid more for encouraging training. But they nudged, supported, and believed in their team’s growth.

When an HT manager arrived, participation jumped:

📊

That variation could be explained by one thing: who the middle manager was.

Managers who were people-focused, proactive, and cared about development boosted training take-up by 45–60% compared to others.

We studied 3 large Latin American firms—a car manufacturer, a retailer, and a fast-food chain. All three offered centrally designed, firm-specific training. Same incentives, same structure.
But participation varied dramatically across teams.

📣 New paper drop!
Why do some employees take up training and others don’t, even when the programs are the same?
Surprisingly, the answer isn’t HR policy—it’s middle managers.
🧵

Organizational Economics Working Group, Spring 2025

Another excellent NBER Org meeting wrapped up, and it's available on YouTube!! www.nber.org/conferences/...

@raffasadun.bsky.social and @andreaprat.bsky.social nailing the program and discussants yet again. Love this group! Thanks to all and looking forward to seeing old friends and new faces soon

Organizational Economics Working Group, Spring 2025

Looking forward to the next @nber.org Organizational Economics Working Group meeting on April 10/11, coorganized with @andreaprat.bsky.social. We have a great line-up of new research papers in Org Econ!

Program and livestream link:

www.nber.org/conferences/...

Excited for the NBER ORG meeting this week! Thanks Raffaella Sadun & Andrea Prat for leading this forward-thinking group exploring fascinating topics, including AI and labor markets. Enjoyed discussing Anna’s paper on class gaps last fall—delighted to return!

If you'd like to teach about the new economics of supply networks and their fragility this spring (see thread below for an application), here's a short list of broadly accessible resources you might find useful.

"deep expertise combined with the social skills and self-awareness to know your own weaknesses is a winning combination in the AI-fueled labor market of the future" - cool new results AI's contribution to problem-solving forklightning.substack.com/p/ai-human-t...

.@emollick.bsky.social, @raffasadun.bsky.social, et al study 776 P&G employees & find large effects of #AI on collaboration & expertise: individuals w/ AI match the performance of teams without AI, produce more balanced solutions, & report positive emotions on the job papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

V nice paper, cited in my new book (along with much more about what economic statistics are missing these) 🙂: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

Welcome Marty!

🚨 Thrilled that our 🆕 paper
“Age and Cognitive Skills: Use It or Lose It”
just came out in #ScienceAdvances @science.org

💡 Longitudinal evidence: age pattern of literacy+numeracy not as bleak as cross-section suggests + strongly differs by skill usage

www.science.org/doi/full/10....

🧵A thread
1/7

📢 Call for papers: 📢

@cesifo.org Area Conference on Economics of Education
(co-organized with Rick Hanushek)

5-6 Sept 2025, Munich

Keynote: @raffasadun.bsky.social

👉 www.cesifo.org/en/event/202...

Submission deadline: 18 May 2025

Past programs: sites.google.com/view/woessma...

Deadline for submission for the NBER Organizational Economics Working Group is tomorrow, send us your best work!

TSMC Founder Morris Chang Podcast Episode · Acquired · 01/27/2025 · 2h 55m

One of the most beautiful strategy/org stories ever, told by the very protagonist. Strongly recommend this episode of acquired with Morris Chang. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

Apply by 6-Feb: NBER Innovation Research Boot Camp, July 11-17

With support from Open Philanthropy:

- classes: Pierre Azoulay, Kevin Bryan, Ina Ganguli, Ben Jones, Chad Jones, Kyle Myers, and me

- panel: Matt Clancy, Dylan Matthews, Caleb Watney

- keynotes: Glenn Hubbard & Ronnie Chatterji

The impact of COVID-19 on digital communication patterns - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications Humanities and Social Sciences Communications - The impact of COVID-19 on digital communication patterns

We found this was happening in the early stages of covid, would be interesting to see if trends continued afterwards www.nature.com/articles/s41...