scholarly journals Occupations and Import Competition: Evidence from Denmark

2019 ◽  
Vol 109 (12) ◽  
pp. 4260-4301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Traiberman

I argue that the winners and losers from trade are decided primarily by occupation. In addition to fixed adjustment costs, workers build up specific human capital over time that is destroyed when they must change occupations. I show that ignoring human capital biases estimates of adjustment costs upward by a factor of 3. Estimating an occupational choice model of the Danish labor market, I show that 57 percent of the dispersion in worker outcomes is accounted for by occupations, and only 16 percent by sectors. Finally, the model suggests that rising import competition from 1995–2005 reduced lifetime earnings for 5 percent of workers. (JEL F14, F16, J24, J31)

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ting Ji

Abstract This paper documents occupational inheritance – that is, children’s inheritance of their parents’ occupations – in China, India, and other countries. Among the causes of the prevalence of occupational inheritance, we target two broad categories that impede growth: labor market frictions and barriers to human capital acquisition. Counterfactual experiments based on a tractable occupational choice model suggest that if the impediments mentioned above were reduced to the US levels, labor productivity would grow by 60–75% in China and 107–178% in India. China realized 74–89% of this growth potential from the 1980s to 2009. In addition, this productivity gain is accompanied by a decrease in the correlation of intergenerational incomes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Waldman ◽  
Ori Zax

In a world characterized by asymmetric learning, promotions can serve as signals of worker ability, and this, in turn, can result in inefficient promotion decisions. If the labor market is competitive, the result will be practices that reduce this distortion. We explore how this logic affects human capital investment decisions. We show that, if commitment is possible, investments will be biased toward the accumulation of firm-specific human capital. We also consider what happens when commitment is not possible and show a number of results including that, if investment choices are not publicly observable, choices are frequently efficient. (JEL D82, J24, J31, M12, M51)


Author(s):  
Vera Adamchik ◽  
Thomas Hyclak

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 34.2pt 0pt 0.5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The objective of this paper is to empirically examine the determinants of post-unemployment wages and to identify the underlying economic forces triggering the observed wage setting mechanisms. Specifically, the paper focuses on the impact of accumulated human capital on post-unemployment wages and investigates the following issues: (1) Is formal educational attainment a significant determinant of post-unemployment wages? (2) What type of previous labor market experience (general vs. job-specific) is more valued by a new employer? (3) Are workers who find a new job in the same sector, industry or occupation more likely to retain their specific human capital and, thus, earn higher post-unemployment wages? The 1994-2001 Polish Labor Force Surveys are used as the data source for this study. </span></span></p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 108-124
Author(s):  
Galina A. Cherednichenko

The materials from a representative survey of Rosstat in 2016 of higher education graduates in 2010–2015 allowed to analyze the processes of their employment. Almost ½ worked during the education that provided advantages in employment. After graduation, 2/3 searched for work and found it relatively quickly, using most often social networks; 1/3 were not busy looking for work, of which ¼ had a provided job. Imbalances between the structure of supply and the structure of demand in the labor market led to the fact that about 1/3 of graduates got a job that did not related to their field of study; more likely ones from fields that generate more general human capital (social sciences, business, law) – on the contrary, for specific human capital (medicine, computer science). Besides, more than a 1/3 of graduates acquired occupational statuses that do not require higher education; the mismatches “job – field of study” significantly worsened this situation. HE graduates had higher employment and lower unemployment compared to SVE graduates; and the differences in average salaries between them were significantly smaller than for all employees with similar levels of education. The beginning of a career evens out the differences in average salaries of HE graduates who have received different statuses.


ILR Review ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 562-586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uta Schönberg

This paper compares the sources of wage growth of young male workers in two countries with very different labor market institutions, the United States and Germany. The author first develops a simple method for decomposing wage growth into components due to general human capital accumulation, firm-specific human capital accumulation, and job search. The empirical analysis uses data from administrative records (Germany) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (United States) for cohorts entering the labor market in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Although the two countries differed substantially in mobility rates, they were similar in the sources of wage growth, with general human capital accumulation being the most important single source and job search accounting for an additional 25% or more of total wage growth. There is no evidence that returns to firm-specific human capital accumulation were higher for German apprentices than for U.S. high school dropouts or graduates.


2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivana Fellini ◽  
Raffaele Guetto

The international literature hypothesized a “U-shaped” pattern of immigrants’ occupational trajectories from origin to destination countries due to the imperfect transferability of human capital. However, empirical evidence supporting this hypothesis is available only in single-country studies and for “old,” Anglo-Saxon migration countries with deregulated labor markets. This article compares Italy, Spain, and France, providing evidence that the more segmented the labor market, the higher immigrants’ occupational downgrade on arrival, independently from skills transferability and other individual characteristics. Paradoxically, the more segmented the labor market, the more important the acquisition of host-country specific human capital for subsequent upward mobility.


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