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This paper investigates the determination and consequences of organizational changes (OC) in a panel of British and French establishments. Organizational changes include the decentralization of authority, delayering of managerial functions, and increased multitasking. We argue that OC and skills are complements. We offer support for the hypothesis of "skill-biased" organizational change with three empirical findings. First, organizational changes reduce the demand for unskilled workers in both countries. Second, OC is negatively associated with increases in regional skill price differentials (a measure of the relative supply of skill). Third, OC leads to greater productivity increases in establishments with larger initial skill endowments. Technical change is also complementary with human capital, but the effects of OC is not simply due to its correlation with technological change but has an independent role.

This paper estimates the causal effect of perceived job insecurity - that is, the fear of involuntary job loss - on health in a sample of men from 22 European countries. We rely on an original instrumental variable approach on the basis of the idea that workers perceive greater job security in countries where employment is strongly protected by the law and more so if employed in industries where employment protection legislation is more binding; that is, in induastries with a higher natural rate of dismissals. Using cross-country data from the 2010 European Working Conditions Survey, we show that, when the potential endogeneity of job insecurity is not accounted for, the latter appears to deteriorate almost all health outcomes. When tackling the endogeneity issue by estimating an instrumental variable model and dealing with potential weak-instrument issues, the health-damaging effect of job insecurity is confirmed for a limited subgroup of health outcomes; namely, suffering from headaches or eyestrain and skin problems. As for other health variables, the impact of job insecurity appears to be insignificant at conventional levels.

We investigate the relationships between new technologies, innovative workplace practices and the age structure of the workforce in a sample of French firms. We find evidence that the wagebill share of older workers is lower in innovative firms and that the opposite holds for younger workers. This age bias affects both men and women. It is also evidenced within occupational groups. More detailed analysis of employment inflows and outflows shows that new technologies essentially affect older workers through reduced hiring opportunities. In contrast, organisational innovations mainly affect their probability of exit, which decreases much less than for younger workers following reorganisation.In response to increasing national and international competition, many American and European firms have invested in information technologies (IT) over the past three decades. Along with the introduction of computer systems and network technologies, most firms have reorganised their workplace in order to introduce more flexible organisational devices. These include self-managed teams, multitasking, just-in-time production and delivery, total-quality management and some decentralisation of decision making. They are often referred to as Ôhigh performanceÕ workplace practices.One important question regarding technological and organisational innovations has to do with their labour-market consequences: do they affect the structure of employment and, as a consequence, do they hurt the employment prospects of particular types of workers? Evidence in the literature suggests that both technological and organisational innovations are biased against unskilled labour. As regards technological change, there is a general agreement that the development of IT has reduced the employment opportunities of less skilled workers; see Chennells and Van Reenen (2002) for a review. The literature on organisational change is more recent, but several works suggest that innovative workplace practices have also been detrimental to lower skilled employment in various countries; see Caroli and Van Reenen (2001) and Bresnahan et al. (2002).One related issue we tackle here is: are new technologies and workplace practices biased against age? In other words, do they hurt the employment prospects of older workers, relative to younger ones? This question is of particular relevance in Europe given that the population is ageing fast and that the employment rate of older workers is particularly low: no more than 40% of the population aged above 55 is employed in Europe, as compared to 58% in the US and 62% in Japan. From * We are indebted to Andrea Bassanini, Sandra Black, Lex Borghans, Bruno Crépon, Annie Jolivet, Richard Murnane, Sébastien Roux, Bas ter Weel, John Van Reenen and an anonymous referee for most valuable suggestions. We also thank participants to the INSEE Division ÔMarchés et Stratégies d'EntreprisesÕ, DEEE and ÔRechercheÕ seminars, to the MERIT Workshop on ÔInformation Technology and New Industry and Labour Market DynamicsÕ, to the 2004 EALE conferenc...