The effect of learning by hiring on productivity

This article focuses on the phenomenon of interfirm labor mobility as a potential channel for knowledge transfer. Using data from the Danish employer-employee register covering the period 19952005, we investigate how knowledge carrierstechnicians and highly educated workers recruited from a donor firmcontribute to knowledge diffusion and enhanced productivity in the hiring (recipient) firm. Structural estimation of the hiring firms' production functions shows that the impact of the recruitment of knowledge carriers on a firm's value added is an increase of 1%2%. Several robustness checks confirm this finding.