6 ms·

Even between the US and Western Europe, there's a significant gap in workforce quality. Researchers have found that American companies consistently achieve high

Even between the US and Western Europe, there's a significant gap in workforce quality. Researchers have found that American companies consistently achieve higher levels of IT productivity than their Western European counterparts.[1] [1]https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.102.1.167 https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.102.1.167

lidi122 5y ago
Article states, that's because of "Combining pan-European firm-level IT data with our management practices survey, we find that the US IT related productivity advantage is primarily due to its tougher "people management" practices." So it's not related to IT engineering skills but rather how the company handles those engineers. An US based company will handle EU based engineers like their own, thus nullifying your argument.
- Apocryphon 5y ago
  And this could lead to higher turnover due a transatlantic work culture shock.
wiz21c 5y ago
How do you think they achieve that ? We use the same tools all over the world, maybe the same processes, intelligence is uniformly distributed. Maybe training ? I've worked with many people from abroad (even some from the US) and truth is : there were people better than others, there were people who worked more than the others. But this is never tied to nationality. It is much more tied to : does the guy want to be top notch ? If he asks the question then he probably has the ability and willing to make the sacrifices.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
Kranar 5y ago
That article talks about multinational companies, not individuals. In other words, American companies are more productive instead of American software engineers being more productive. That could very well be due to differences in management and in fact that seems to be the conclusion drawn by your link, which states that productivity among European companies increases when those companies are taken over by American firms. Right from the abstract: >US IT related productivity advantage is primarily due to its tougher "people management" practices

lidi122 5y ago

Article states, that's because of "Combining pan-European firm-level IT data with our management practices survey, we find that the US IT related productivity advantage is primarily due to its tougher "people management" practices." So it's not related to IT engineering skills but rather how the company handles those engineers. An US based company will handle EU based engineers like their own, thus nullifying your argument.

Apocryphon 5y ago
And this could lead to higher turnover due a transatlantic work culture shock.

wiz21c 5y ago

How do you think they achieve that ? We use the same tools all over the world, maybe the same processes, intelligence is uniformly distributed. Maybe training ? I've worked with many people from abroad (even some from the US) and truth is : there were people better than others, there were people who worked more than the others. But this is never tied to nationality. It is much more tied to : does the guy want to be top notch ? If he asks the question then he probably has the ability and willing to make the sacrifices.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

Kranar 5y ago

That article talks about multinational companies, not individuals. In other words, American companies are more productive instead of American software engineers being more productive. That could very well be due to differences in management and in fact that seems to be the conclusion drawn by your link, which states that productivity among European companies increases when those companies are taken over by American firms. Right from the abstract: >US IT related productivity advantage is primarily due to its tougher "people management" practices