https://macropaperwarehouse.com/authors/virginia-minni/Virginia MinniHugo -- gohugo.ioen-ushttps://macropaperwarehouse.com/papers/making-the-invisible-hand-visible-managers-and-the-allocation-of-workers-to-jobs/https://macropaperwarehouse.com/papers/making-the-invisible-hand-visible-managers-and-the-allocation-of-workers-to-jobs/<p>This paper asks why managers matter for firm performance, and specifically whether managers improve productivity by matching workers to better-suited jobs inside firms rather than through supervision, motivation, or selection out of the firm. The setting is the internal labor market of a large private consumer goods multinational enterprise (MNE) operating in more than 100 countries, with annual turnover exceeding EUR 50 billion. The data cover the universe of white-collar workers and managers at the firm — 200,000 workers and 30,000 managers observed monthly over 11 years (January 2011 to December 2021) — linked to payroll, performance ratings, organizational chart, digital platform activity, employee surveys, and an independent sales productivity series for field sales workers in 15 countries.</p>