R. Stucchi

"This article evaluates the effect of the Argentinean Support Program for Organizational Change on employment and wages. The program aimed at increasing small and medium-sized enterprises' competitiveness by co-financing technical assistance to support process and product innovation activities. Although employment is not usually the main objective of these types of programs, they are always implemented assuming that they create - or at least do not destroy-employment opportunities. We use a unique data set with information for the population of firms in Argentina from 1996 to 2008 to test this important assumption. Using a combination of fixed effects and matching, we find that both process and product innovation support increased employment and wages, with a higher impact on employment. In addition, we find that product innovation support had a larger effect on wages than process innovation support."

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"This paper evaluates the impact of the Chilean Supplier Development Program, aimed at improving and stabilizing the commercial linkages between small and medium-sized suppliers and their large firm customers, during the period 2003-2008. Applying propensity score matching and difference-in-differences, we find that both groups of firms benefited from the coordination efforts. The program increased sales, employment, and the sustainability of small and medium-sized suppliers. It also increased the sales of large firms and raised their ability of becoming exporters. We also find that the timing of the effect is different for suppliers and large firms. While the effect on suppliers appeared one year after the firms enrolled in the program, the effect on large firms took two years to appear."

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