Manuel Torres-Sahli Español

Working paper · August 2026

Hierarchies: New Facts from Administrative HR Data

Felipe Aldunate, Alfredo Enrione, Jacinta Girardi, Constanza Opazo, Manuel Torres-Sahli*, Santiago Truffa

* Corresponding author: Manuel Torres-Sahli.

Authors in alphabetical order. Presented at EARIE 2026 (Mannheim, August 2026). Comments welcome. The online appendix is available from the corresponding author on request.

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Abstract

We map the internal hierarchy of 3,059 firms from administrative HR records in which at least 95% of employees resolve to a position in the reporting tree, reading the rungs of the job ladder off the reporting tree rather than inferring them from occupation codes, titles or job transitions. We document three regularities. Firms grow wider rather than deeper: doubling employment adds 0.51 layers. Pay tracks hierarchical position, and 8.3 of the 30.6 percentage points hierarchy adds to within-firm wage variance come from span and reach, which have no occupational analogue. Deeper firms do not replicate shallow ones: steps between neighbouring rungs compress as height rises even though the top-to-bottom gap widens, and at the apex the premium of tall firms turns out to be a premium for reach, not for rank. Observing the ladder also shows that about four fifths of the gender wage gap (79%) is pay within the same rung of the same firm, not sorting across rungs or firms.

Keywords: Organizational hierarchy, internal labor markets, job ladder, promotion, wage structure, span of control, administrative data
JEL codes: D23, J24, J31, J33, J62, L22, M52

Aldunate acknowledges funding from ANID FONDECYT Regular 1262214.

Cite as

Aldunate, F., Enrione, A., Girardi, J., Opazo, C., Torres-Sahli, M., & Truffa, S. (2026). Hierarchies: New facts from administrative HR data. Working paper, August 2026. https://manueltorressahli.com/papers/hierarchies

@unpublished{Aldunate.etal2026Hierarchies,
  author = {Aldunate, Felipe and Enrione, Alfredo and Girardi, Jacinta and Opazo, Constanza and Torres-Sahli, Manuel and Truffa, Santiago},
  title  = {Hierarchies: New Facts from Administrative {HR} Data},
  note   = {Working paper, August 2026},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://manueltorressahli.com/papers/hierarchies}
}