Management, productivity, and technology choices: evidence from U.S. mining schools

A key difference between managers and other production inputs is that managers choose the other inputs. Modelling management as a Hicks‐neutral productivity shifter, which is a common practice, omits the productivity returns from these input decisions. I illustrate this through a historical episode in which technology choices were important and managers plausibly influenced those choices. I study the entry of the first mining college graduates into coal mine management positions in Pennsylvania. Whereas the Hicks‐neutral productivity effect of these managers was negative and not significantly different from zero, their indirect productivity effect through electrical locomotive adoption was 3% on average.