Chapter 19

Human Resource Management and Productivity

Nicholas Bloom*, *Stanford, Centre for Economic Performance and NBER

John Van Reenen**, **London School of Economics, Centre for Economic Performance, NBER and CEPR

Abstract

In this chapter we examine the relationship between Human Resource Management (HRM) and productivity. HRM includes incentive pay (individual and group) as well as many non-pay aspects of the employment relationship such as matching (hiring and firing) and work organization (e.g. teams, autonomy). We place HRM more generally within the literature on management practices and productivity. We start with some facts on levels and trends of both HRM and productivity and the main economic theories of HRM. We look at some of the ...

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