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When Does it Pay Off to Learn a New Skill? Revealing the Complementary Benefit of Cross-Skilling

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  • Fabian Stephany

Abstract

This work examines the economic benefits of learning a new skill from a different domain: cross-skilling. To assess this, a network of skills from the job profiles of 14,790 online freelancers is constructed. Based on this skill network, relationships between 3,480 different skills are revealed and marginal effects of learning a new skill can be calculated via workers' wages. The results indicate that learning in-demand skills, such as popular programming languages, is beneficial in general, and that diverse skill sets tend to be profitable, too. However, the economic benefit of a new skill is individual, as it complements the existing skill bundle of each worker. As technological and social transformation is reshuffling jobs' task profiles at a fast pace, the findings of this study help to clarify skill sets required for designing individual re-skilling pathways. This can help to increase employability and reduce labour market shortages.

Suggested Citation

  • Fabian Stephany, 2020. "When Does it Pay Off to Learn a New Skill? Revealing the Complementary Benefit of Cross-Skilling," Papers 2010.11841, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2021.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2010.11841
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    Cited by:

    1. Lars Hornuf & Daniel Vrankar, 2022. "Hourly Wages in Crowdworking: A Meta-Analysis," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 64(5), pages 553-573, October.
    2. Fabian Stephany & Hanno Lorenz, 2021. "The Future of Employment Revisited: How Model Selection Determines Automation Forecasts," Papers 2104.13747, arXiv.org.

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