This paper studies the role of recruitment difficulties on firms' growth by combining unique vacancy-level data from France with an identification strategy based on a shift-share design. Specifically, we exploit cross-firm variation in exposure to recruiting difficulties stemming from initial differences in firms' occupational mix and we leverage recruiting difficulties shifts using market-level changes in the time it takes to fill a vacancy in a given occupation, with a leave-one-out correction at the industry-level. We find that higher hiring difficulties translate into fewer vacancies posted by firms employing workers in hard-to-recruit occupations. This hampers their employment, with a one-standard deviation increase in predicted recruiting time decreasing firms' employment by 5 to 9%. These effects are especially large when firms are labor-intensive and when they employ a higher share of workers in highly specialized occupations. Complementing the results on employment, we find evidence of negative effects also on firms' investment, profits, and sales. Finally, we show that firms partially adjust to hiring difficulties by increasing wages, retaining incumbent workers, and promoting them higher up into high-pay occupations.

In this paper we discuss some strands of the recent literature on the evolution of gender gaps and their driving forces. We will revisit key stylized facts about gender gaps in employment and wages in a few high-income countries. We then discuss and build on one gender-neutral force behind the rise in female employment, namely the rise of the service economy. This is also related to the polarization of female employment and to the geographic distribution of jobs, which is expected to be especially relevant for female employment prospects. We finally turn to currently debated causes of remaining gender gaps and discuss existing evidence on labor market consequences of women’s heavier caring responsibilities in the household. In particular, we highlight sharp gender differences in commuting behavior and discuss how women’s stronger distaste for commuting time may feed into gender pay gaps.

In this paper we discuss some strands of the recent literature on the evolution of gender gaps and their driving forces. We will revisit key stylized facts about gender gaps in employment and wages in a few high-income countries. We then discuss and build on one gender-neutral force behind the rise in female employment, namely the rise of the service economy. This is also related to the polarization of female employment and to the geographic distribution of jobs, which is expected to be especially relevant for female employment prospects. We finally turn to currently debated causes of remaining gender gaps and discuss existing evidence on labor market consequences of women's heavier caring responsibilities in the household. In particular, we highlight how women's stronger distaste for commuting time may feed into gender pay gaps by making women more willing to trade off steeper wage gains for shorter commutes.

The paper aims at investigating to what extent wage negotiation set-ups have shaped up firms’ response to the Great Recession, taking a firm-level cross-country perspective. We contribute to the literature by building a new micro-distributed database which merges data related to wage bargaining institutions (Wage Dynamic Network, WDN) with data on firm productivity and other relevant firm characteristics (CompNet). We use the database to study how firms reacted to the Great Recession in terms of variation in profits, wages, and employment. The paper shows that, in line with the theoretical predictions, centralized bargaining systems – as opposed to decentralized/firm level based ones – were accompanied by stronger downward wage rigidity, as well as cuts in employment and profits.

One of the most important lessons learned during the 2008-09 financial crisis was that the informational toolbox on which policymakers base their decisions about competitiveness became outdated in terms of both data sources and data analysis. The toolbox is particularly outdated when it comes to tapping the potential of micro data for the analysis of competitiveness – a serious problem given that it is firms, rather than countries that compete on global markets.