IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2111.12459.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Performance of Recent Methods for Estimating Skill Prices in Panel Data

Author

Listed:
  • Michael J. Bohm
  • Hans-Martin von Gaudecker

Abstract

This paper explores different methods to estimate prices paid per efficiency unit of labor in panel data. We study the sensitivity of skill price estimates to different assumptions regarding workers' choice problem, identification strategies, the number of occupations considered, skill accumulation processes, and estimation strategies. In order to do so, we conduct careful Monte Carlo experiments designed to generate similar features as in German panel data. We find that once skill accumulation is appropriately modelled, skill price estimates are generally robust to modelling choices when the number of occupations is small, i.e., switches between occupations are rare. When switching is important, subtle issues emerge and the performance of different methods varies more strongly.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael J. Bohm & Hans-Martin von Gaudecker, 2021. "The Performance of Recent Methods for Estimating Skill Prices in Panel Data," Papers 2111.12459, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2111.12459
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2111.12459
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Guido Matias Cortes & Giovanni Gallipoli, 2014. "The Costs of Occupational Mobility: An Aggregate Analysis," Working Papers 2014-015, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    2. Joseph G. Altonji & Charles R. Pierret, 2001. "Employer Learning and Statistical Discrimination," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(1), pages 313-350.
    3. Artuç, Erhan & McLaren, John, 2015. "Trade policy and wage inequality: A structural analysis with occupational and sectoral mobility," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 278-294.
    4. Gary Solon & Robert Barsky & Jonathan A. Parker, 1994. "Measuring the Cyclicality of Real Wages: How Important is Composition Bias?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(1), pages 1-25.
    5. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Duranton, Gilles & Gobillon, Laurent, 2008. "Spatial wage disparities: Sorting matters!," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 723-742, March.
    6. Zsófia L. Bárány & Christian Siegel, 2018. "Job Polarization and Structural Change," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 57-89, January.
    7. Fane Groes & Philipp Kircher & Iourii Manovskii, 2015. "The U-Shapes of Occupational Mobility," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 82(2), pages 659-692.
    8. Guido Matias Cortes & Giovanni Gallipoli, 2018. "The Costs of Occupational Mobility: An Aggregate Analysis," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 16(2), pages 275-315.
    9. McLaughlin, Kenneth J & Bils, Mark, 2001. "Interindustry Mobility and the Cyclical Upgrading of Labor," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(1), pages 94-135, January.
    10. Cavaglia, Chiara & Etheridge, Ben, 2020. "Job polarization and the declining quality of knowledge workers: evidence from the UK and Germany," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 105819, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Robert Gibbons & Michael Waldman, 1999. "A Theory of Wage and Promotion Dynamics Inside Firms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(4), pages 1321-1358.
    12. Whitney K. Newey & Frank Windmeijer, 2009. "Generalized Method of Moments With Many Weak Moment Conditions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(3), pages 687-719, May.
    13. Robert Gibbons & Lawrence F. Katz & Thomas Lemieux & Daniel Parent, 2005. "Comparative Advantage, Learning, and Sectoral Wage Determination," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(4), pages 681-724, October.
    14. Guido Matias Cortes, 2016. "Where Have the Middle-Wage Workers Gone? A Study of Polarization Using Panel Data," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(1), pages 63-105.
    15. Shintaro Yamaguchi, 2018. "Changes in Returns to Task-Specific Skills and Gender Wage Gap," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 53(1), pages 32-70.
    16. Rafael Dix‐Carneiro, 2014. "Trade Liberalization and Labor Market Dynamics," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82(3), pages 825-885, May.
    17. Cavaglia, Chiara & Etheridge, Ben, 2020. "Job polarization and the declining quality of knowledge workers: Evidence from the UK and Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    18. A. D. Roy, 1951. "Some Thoughts On The Distribution Of Earnings," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 3(2), pages 135-146.
    19. Donghoon Lee & Kenneth I. Wolpin, 2006. "Intersectoral Labor Mobility and the Growth of the Service Sector," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(1), pages 1-46, January.
    20. Alwyn Young, 2014. "Structural Transformation, the Mismeasurement of Productivity Growth, and the Cost Disease of Services," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(11), pages 3635-3667, November.
    21. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    22. Young, Alwyn, 2014. "Structural transformation, the mismeasurement of productivity growth, and the cost disease of services," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60213, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    23. Heckman, James J & Sedlacek, Guilherme, 1985. "Heterogeneity, Aggregation, and Market Wage Functions: An Empirical Model of Self-selection in the Labor Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(6), pages 1077-1125, December.
    24. Anderson, T. W. & Hsiao, Cheng, 1982. "Formulation and estimation of dynamic models using panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 47-82, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michael J. Böhm & Hans-Martin von Gaudecker & Felix Schran, 2024. "Occupation Growth, Skill Prices, and Wage Inequality," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 42(1), pages 201-243.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michael J. Böhm & Hans-Martin von Gaudecker & Felix Schran, 2024. "Occupation Growth, Skill Prices, and Wage Inequality," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 42(1), pages 201-243.
    2. 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.
    3. Cavaglia, Chiara & Etheridge, Ben, 2020. "Job polarization and the declining quality of knowledge workers: Evidence from the UK and Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    4. Cavaglia, Chiara & Etheridge, Ben, 2020. "Job polarization and the declining quality of knowledge workers: evidence from the UK and Germany," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 105819, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. 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).
    6. Michael Böhm & Daniel Metzger & Per Strömberg, 2022. "“Since You’re So Rich, You Must Be Really Smart”: Talent, Rent Sharing, and the Finance Wage Premium," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 147, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    7. Bas Klaauw & António Dias da Silva, 2011. "Wage dynamics and promotions inside and between firms," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(4), pages 1513-1548, October.
    8. Schran, Felix, 2019. "Locational Choice and Spatial Wage Inequality," IZA Discussion Papers 12660, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Zsófia L. Bárány & Christian Siegel, 2018. "Job Polarization and Structural Change," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 57-89, January.
    10. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/4t83lre9hm91sq006n4940n19s is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Artuç, Erhan & McLaren, John, 2015. "Trade policy and wage inequality: A structural analysis with occupational and sectoral mobility," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 278-294.
    12. Christian Bredemeier & Falko Juessen & Roland Winkler, 2020. "Fiscal Policy and Occupational Employment Dynamics," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(6), pages 1527-1563, September.
    13. Paul J. Devereux, 2005. "Do Employers Provide Insurance against Low Frequency Shocks? Industry Employment and Industry Wages," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(2), pages 313-340, April.
    14. Amodio, Francesco & Medina, Pamela & Morlacco, Monica, 2022. "Labor Market Power, Self-Employment, and Development," IZA Discussion Papers 15477, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. 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.
    16. Boehm, Michael J. & Watzinger, Martin, 2012. "The allocation of talent over the business cycle and its effect on sectoral productivity," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121927, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Matthew D. Baird, 2017. "Labor Supply Estimation Biases From Disregarding Nonwage Benefits," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(2), pages 1064-1090, April.
    18. Etheridge, Ben & Cavaglia, Chiara, 2017. "Job polarization, task prices and the distribution of task returns," ISER Working Paper Series 2017-09, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    19. Zsófia L. Bárány & Christian Siegel, 2018. "Job Polarization and Structural Change," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 57-89, January.
    20. Eduard Storm, 2023. "On the measurement of tasks: does expert data get it right?," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 57(1), pages 1-24, December.
    21. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/4t83lre9hm91sq006n4940n19s is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Nakabayashi, Masaki, 2011. "Schooling, employer learning, and internal labor market effect: Wage dynamics and human capital investment in the Japanese steel industry, 1930-1960s," MPRA Paper 30597, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2111.12459. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.