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Pre-Market Skills, Occupational Choice, and Career Progression

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  • Jamin D. Speer

Abstract

This paper develops a new empirical framework for analyzing occupational choice and career progression. I merge the NLSYs with O*Net and find that pre-market skills (primarily ASVAB test scores) predict the task content of the workers’ occupations. These measures account for 71 percent of the gender gap in science and engineering occupations. Career trajectories are similar across workers, so that initial differences in occupation persist over time. I then quantify the effect of layoffs on career trajectory and find that a layoff erases one-fourth of a worker’s total career increase in task content but this effect only lasts two years.

Suggested Citation

  • Jamin D. Speer, 2017. "Pre-Market Skills, Occupational Choice, and Career Progression," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 52(1), pages 187-246.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:52:y:2017:i:1:p:187-246
    Note: DOI: 10.3368/jhr.52.1.0215-6940R
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Ralph Stinebrickner & Todd Stinebrickner & Paul Sullivan, 2019. "Job Tasks, Time Allocation, and Wages," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(2), pages 399-433.
    2. Benjamin W. Arold, 2022. "Evolution vs. Creationism in the Classroom: The Lasting Effects of Science Education," ifo Working Paper Series 379, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    3. Strazzeri, Maurizio & Oggenfuss, Chantal & Wolter, Stefan C., 2022. "Much Ado about Nothing? School Curriculum Reforms and Students' Educational Trajectories," IZA Discussion Papers 15505, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Fatih Guvenen & Burhan Kuruscu & Satoshi Tanaka & David Wiczer, 2020. "Multidimensional Skill Mismatch," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 210-244, January.
    5. Isaac Baley & Ana Figueiredo & Robert Ulbricht, 2022. "Mismatch Cycles," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 130(11), pages 2943-2984.
    6. Nix, Emily, 2020. "A researcher’s guide to the Swedish compulsory school reform," Working Paper Series 2020:14, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    7. Michael J. Böhm, 2020. "The price of polarization: Estimating task prices under routine‐biased technical change," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 11(2), pages 761-799, May.
    8. Arellano-Bover, Jaime & Saltiel, Fernando, 2021. "Differences in On-the-Job Learning across Firms," IZA Discussion Papers 14473, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Parro, Francisco & Pohl, R. Vincent, 2018. "Health Shocks, Human Capital, and Labor Market Outcomes," MPRA Paper 87238, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. David Deming & Lisa B. Kahn, 2018. "Skill Requirements across Firms and Labor Markets: Evidence from Job Postings for Professionals," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(S1), pages 337-369.
    11. Ralph Stinebrickner & Todd Stinebrickner & Paul Sullivan, 2019. "Beauty, Job Tasks, and Wages: A New Conclusion about Employer Taste-Based Discrimination," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(4), pages 602-615, October.
    12. Speer, Jamin D., 2017. "The gender gap in college major: Revisiting the role of pre-college factors," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 69-88.
    13. Böhm, Michael, 2014. "The Wage Effects of Job Polarization: Evidence from the Allocation of Talents," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100547, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    14. Warn N. Lekfuangfu & Grace Lordan, 2023. "Documenting occupational sorting by gender in the UK across three cohorts: does a grand convergence rely on societal movements?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 64(5), pages 2215-2256, May.
    15. Julie L. Hotchkiss & Anil Rupasingha, 2016. "Wage Determination in Social Occupations: the Role of Individual Social Capital," Working Papers 16-46, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    16. Cristian Bonavida & Leonardo Gasparini, 2024. "El Rol de las Habilidades y las Tareas en las Brechas de Género en América Latina," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0330, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    17. Limor Golan & Carl Sanders & Jonathan James, 2019. "What Explains the Racial Gaps in Task Assignment and Pay Over the Life-Cycle?," 2019 Meeting Papers 320, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    18. Jamin D. Speer, 2020. "Where the girls are: Examining and explaining the gender gap in the nursing major," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 67(3), pages 322-343, July.
    19. Natee Amornsiripanitch & Paul Gompers & George Hu & Will Levinson & Vladimir Mukharlyamov, 2022. "Failing Just Fine: Assessing Careers of Venture Capital-backed Entrepreneurs Via a Non-Wage Measure," NBER Working Papers 30179, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Seifried, Mareike & Jurowetzki, Roman & Kretschmer, Tobias, 2020. "Career paths in online labor markets: Same, same but different?," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-090, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    21. Nicholas Litsardopoulos & George Saridakis & Yannis Georgellis & Chris Hand, 2023. "Self-employment experience effects on well-being: A longitudinal study," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 44(2), pages 454-480, May.
    22. Seifried, Mareike, 2021. "Transitions from offline to online labor markets: The relationship between freelancers' prior offline and online work experience," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-101, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    23. Böhm, Michael Johannes, 2017. "The Price of Polarization: Estimating Task Prices under Routine-Biased Technical Change," IZA Discussion Papers 11220, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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