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Employer learning, job changes, and wage dynamics

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  • Seik Kim
  • Emiko Usui

Abstract

This paper takes a new approach to testing whether employer learning is public or private. We show that public and private learning schemes make two distinct predictions about the curvature of the wage growth path when a worker changes jobs, because less information about the worker's productivity is transferred to a new employer in the private learning case than in the public learning case. This prediction enables us to account for individual and job‐match heterogeneity, which was not possible in previous tests. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we find that employer learning is public for high‐school graduates and private for college graduates.

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  • Seik Kim & Emiko Usui, 2021. "Employer learning, job changes, and wage dynamics," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(3), pages 1286-1307, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecinqu:v:59:y:2021:i:3:p:1286-1307
    DOI: 10.1111/ecin.12980
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    Cited by:

    1. Araki, Shota & Kawaguchi, Daiji & Onozuka, Yuki, 2016. "University prestige, performance evaluation, and promotion: Estimating the employer learning model using personnel datasets," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 135-148.
    2. Cassidy, Hugh & DeVaro, Jed & Kauhanen, Antti, 2016. "Promotion signaling, gender, and turnover: New theory and evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 126(PA), pages 140-166.

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