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Quitting and labor turnover : microeconomic evidence and macroeconomic consequences

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  • Krebs, Tom
  • Maloney, William F.

Abstract

Combining microeconomic evidence with macroeconomic theory, the authors present an integrated approach to wage and employment determination in an economy where firms pay above market"efficiency wages"to prevent trained workers from quitting. The model offers predictions about the behavior of formal employment, labor turnover, and segmentation in response to formal sector productivity shocks (including economic growth and tax reductions), changes in the desirability of self-employment (formal sector tax rates), and the cost of training a new worker. They use panel data from Mexican labor surveys to estimate the quit function derived fromthe model and the results support their view that transitions from formal salaried work to informal self-employment are quits rather than fires. (Quitting is positively related to the mean self-employment income and the probability of being rehired and negatively related to the mean formal salaried wage.) They then use the parameters estimated from the quit function to calibrate the model economy and simulate the impacts of economic shocks and policy innovations and find the impact on employment, turnover, and segmentation to be substantial.

Suggested Citation

  • Krebs, Tom & Maloney, William F., 1999. "Quitting and labor turnover : microeconomic evidence and macroeconomic consequences," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2068, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:2068
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Mathan Satchi & Jonathan Temple, 2006. "Growth and labour markets in developing countries," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 06/581, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    2. Maloney, William F., 1999. "Self-employment and labor turnover - cross-country evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2102, The World Bank.
    3. Mathan Satchi & Jonathan Temple, 2009. "Labor Markets and Productivity in Developing Countries," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 12(1), pages 183-204, January.
    4. Maloney, William F., 2004. "Informality Revisited," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 1159-1178, July.

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