Linking different data of Statistics Estonia, an aggregated database of employees and employers has been created, which combines enterprise-level data (e.g., Estonian Commercial Register data on corporate financial indicators and foreign trade data on enterprise market and product level of Statistics Estonia) and employee data (Data from the Tax Board on paid social tax and main job and the year 2011 Population and Housing Census data). Examples of earlier works: Using this data, Masso, Rõigas, Vahter (2015) found that the proportion of employees with export experience obtained from previous jobs is positively related to the likelihood of exporting to a specific geographical region (e.g., to the EU Member States, neighboring countries, Asian countries, etc.). Vahter and Masso (2019) investigated how the ownership of foreign business owners is related to the gender pay gap. Subsequent studies examined the relationship between the gender pay gap in companies with automation (Pavlenkova, Alfieri, Masso 2021), the innovative activities of companies (Masso, Vahter 2020), as well as the role of company-level factors in the gender pay gap (Meriküll, Vahter, Masso 2022). Combining VAT return data on business-to-business transactions with mobility data, the importance of these two channels for the transfer of knowledge from foreign-owned companies to local companies was examined (Masso, Vahter 2019, 2021). The development of the databases was carried out in co-operation with the projects RITA-RÄNNE (linking Estonian and Finnish individual-level data) and InWeGE (the use of data for publishing detailed salary information through digital applications).
Related projects
One of the most important cooperation projects to date with the public sector is the European Union-funded project “InWeGe – Income, wealth, and gender. Study and practical web tool for understanding gender pay and pension gaps in Estonia – the country with the biggest gender pay gap in the EU.“ The aim is to facilitate the availability of wage information to job seekers through detailed labor market segments (narrowly defined occupations, regions, etc.) through a digital solution (web application). This could influence people’s decisions on labor market participation, wage bargaining, education and career choices, and would, in turn, reduce the gender gap in wages, pensions, and wealth.
Completed studies
So far, the researches using data developed within the framework of the IMO have investigated the factors influencing the export success of Estonian enterprises and the impact of export on enterprise productivity, the links between the mobility of employees between enterprises and the operation success (e.g., export) of enterprises. Below are references to research projects using data developed within the IMO.
Masso, Jaan; Meriküll, Jaanika; Vahter, Priit (2022). The role of firms in the gender wage gap. Journal of Comparative Economics, xx (xx), xx−xx. DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2021.10.001 forthcoming.
Masso, J., Vahter, P. (2021), “Joining and exiting the value chain of multinationals and the performance of suppliers: evidence from inter-firm transaction data”, University of Tartu, School of Economics and Business Administration Working Paper No. 136. https://majandus.ut.ee/sites/default/files/mtk/dokumendid/febawb136.pdf
Masso, J., Vahter, P. (2019), “Knowledge Transfer from Multinationals through Labour Mobility: Are There Effects on Productivity, Product Sophistication and Exporting?”, Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Vol. 55, Issue 12, pp. 2774-2795.
Vahter, P. & Masso, J. (2019). “The contribution of multinationals to wage inequality: foreign ownership and the gender pay gap”, Review of World Economics. Vol. 155, Issue 1, pp. 105-148.
Roosaar, L.; Masso, J.; Varblane, U (2019), “Age-related productivity decrease of high-waged and low-waged employees”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40, No. 6, pp. 1151-1170.
Naomitsu Yashiro, Konstantins Benkovskis, Jaan Masso, Olegs Tkacevs, Priit Vahter (2017), „Export and productivity in global value chains. Comparative evidence from Latvia and Estonia“, OECD Economics Department Working Paper No. 1448.
Use of data
The data can be used for a variety of scientific and applied research, the possible topics of which being export factors of companies, innovative activities of companies, intra-company mobility of employees and its links to entrepreneurial performance, factors affecting employees’ wages and salary inequalities, etc., (the list is not exhaustive).
Information on the use of data for research is available on the website of the Statistical Office.