BICEPS/SSE Riga Research Seminar: Understanding How Job Retention Schemes Reshape the Skill Profile of Labor within Firms

We are happy to invite you to a BICEPS/SSE Riga research seminar, which will take place on Thursday, September 14, at 17:00 at SSE Riga, room 611.

We are delighted to welcome Konstantins Benkovskis (Bank of Latvia and SSE Riga) as the speaker. Konstantins is an advisor to the Monetary Policy Department at the Bank of Latvia and an Associate Professor at SSE Riga. His main research interests include international trade, non-price competitiveness, global value chains, productivity, and resource allocation. Konstantins is a Board Member of the Baltic Economic Association and a member of the Editorial Board of the Baltic Journal of Economics.

Title: Understanding How Job Retention Schemes Reshape the Skill Profile of Labor within Firms (co-authored with Olegs Tkacevs and Karlis Vilerts, Bank of Latvia)

Time: Thursday, September 14, 17:00

Venue: SSE Riga, room 611

Abstract

Utilizing employer-employee data from Latvia, this paper examines the repercussions of participation in job retention programs on the skill composition of the workforce at the firm level. The findings of this study reveal that participation in job retention schemes yields a favorable impact on employees’ probability of retaining their employment within the same firm after the program concludes. The magnitude of this effect is independent of the skills acquired by employees who receive the benefits. However, employees with higher skills are less likely to participate in the job retention scheme due to legal restrictions on the maximum benefit amount and income replacement rate. Taken together, the findings of this investigation suggest that job retention schemes may have an adverse effect on the quality of workforce at the firm level.