Addressing societal challenges with linked employer-employee data

Keynote Speakers
Michael S. Dahl, Aalborg University Business School
Francis Kramarz, ENSAE-ENSAI

Linked Employer-Employee Data (LEED) have been increasingly used by scholars to address a wide variety of research questions that are important for both theory and practice. During the recent years, we have witnessed a proliferation of studies across social sciences using LEED to address questions that advance both theory and practice through their impact on policy, business sector, and society at large. Research based on LEED can be particularly powerful for understanding the antecedents and consequences of several societal and business challenges. LEED-based research can also be useful in the quest for potential solutions to these problems, by allowing to test the outcomes of policy changes or uncovering empirical patterns that can inspire experimental studies able to identify the causal effect of novel interventions. Examples of challenges characterizing our times include ageing population, the unintended effects of globalisation and international trade, climate change and the need for a “green transition”, technological change and the future of work, gender gaps in the labor market, income inequality, mental health, unemployment, forced migration, and crime. Firms – small and large, domestic and foreign –, their managers, as well as the communities surrounding them are all believed to play a unique role in mitigating or propagating some of these societal challenges.

The Center for Economics and Finance at the University of Porto (CEF.UP) is organizing and hosting the 7th Linked Employer-Employee Data (LEED) Workshop at FEP, University of Porto, Portugal, on the 27-28th of June, 2022. The Linked Employer-Employee Data (LEED) workshop was originally established in 2009 to celebrate the decision to make the Portuguese LEED, Quadros de Pessoal, accessible to the academic community. Quadros de Pessoal is now internationally renowned as one of the richest administrative Linked Employer-Employee Datasets suitable to study the behavior of firms, employees, and to address many other questions related to the functioning of labor and product markets.

This Workshop intends to bring together scholars doing research with this type of data and create a forum for discussion on the role of LEED as a foundation for solid academic research that can help address current societal challenges by informing policy and other decision-makers. We foresee great opportunities for exchange between scholars from various fields (e.g., economics, management, innovation, entrepreneurship, strategy, organizational behaviour, sociology, among others) working with this type of data on research questions that are both theoretically grounded and socially relevant. The availability of this type of data in several European countries with different regulatory environments (e.g., Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany) may create additional opportunities for discussion about cross-country differences and institutional contexts. We therefore encourage researchers using LEED from different countries, including PhD students and junior scholars, to submit a paper to the Workshop.

The deadline for paper submission is March 31, 2022. Applicants will be notified about the status of their submissions by April 20, 2022.

We would very much appreciate if you could disseminate this event in your institution.

Looking forward to seeing you in June 2022, in Porto, Portugal.

Kind regards,
The Organizing Committee
Anabela Carneiro, Universidade do Porto and CEF.UP
Paulo Guimarães, Banco de Portugal and Universidade do Porto
Vera Rocha, Copenhagen Business School