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Cheng, Siwei & Barum Park (2020): Flows and Boundaries: A Network Approach to Studying Occupational Mobility in the Labor Market. In: American journal of sociology, Jg. 126, H. 3, S. 577-631. DOI:10.1086/712406

Abstract

"Although stratification research has long recognized the importance of mapping out the underlying boundaries that govern the flow of workers in the labor market, the current literature faces two major challenges: (1) the determination of mobility boundaries and (2) the incorporation of changes in mobility boundaries. The authors propose a network approach to address these challenges. The approach conceptualizes the occupational system as a network, in which the nodes are occupations and the edges are defined by the volume and direction of workers who move between the nodes. A flow-based community detection algorithm is introduced to uncover mobility boundaries based on the observed mobility network. Applying this approach to analyze trends in intragenerational occupational mobility in the United States from 1989 to 2015, the authors find that the boundaries that constrain mobility opportunities have become increasingly rigid over time, while, at the same time, decoupled from the boundaries of big classes and microclasses. Moreover, these boundaries are increasingly sorting workers into clusters of occupations with similar skill requirements." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Cubas, German & Pedro Silos (2020): Social Insurance And Occupational Mobility. In: International Economic Review, Jg. 61, H. 1, S. 219-240. DOI:10.1111/iere.12422

Abstract

"This article studies how insurance from progressive taxation improves the matching of workers to occupations. We propose an equilibrium dynamic assignment model to illustrate how social insurance encourages mobility. Workers experiment to find their best occupational fit in a process filled with uncertainty. Risk aversion and limited earnings insurance induce workers to remain in unfitting occupations. We estimate the model using microdata from the United States and Germany. Higher earnings uncertainty explains the U.S. higher mobility rate. When workers in the United States enjoy Germany's higher progressivity, mobility rises. Output and welfare gains are large." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))

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Fernández-Lozano, Irina, M. José González, Teresa Jurado-Guerrero & Juan-Ignacio Martínez-Pastor (2020): The Hidden Cost of Flexibility: A Factorial Survey Experiment on Job Promotion. In: European Sociological Review, Jg. 36, H. 2, S. 265-283. DOI:10.1093/esr/jcz059

Abstract

"This article analyses the role of gender, parenthood, and work flexibility measures and the mediating role of stereotypes on the likelihood of achieving an internal promotion in Spain. We hypothesize that employers favour fathers over mothers and disfavour flexible workers (flexibility stigma) because they are perceived, respectively, as less competent and less committed. We also hypothesize that employers reflect their gender values in the selection process. These hypotheses are tested using data from a survey experiment in which 71 supervisors from private companies evaluate 426 short vignettes describing six different candidates for promotion into positions that require decision-making and team supervision skills. Several candidate characteristics are experimentally manipulated, while others such as skills and experience in the company are kept constant to minimize the risk of statistical discrimination. Contrary to our expectations, fathers are not preferred in promotion, as they are not perceived as being more competent than mothers. However, we find that flexibility leads to lower promotion scores, partly due to its association with a lack of commitment. Although the statutory right to reduce working hours for care reasons seems a major social achievement, this experiment shows that mothers may be indirectly penalized, as they are the main users of this policy." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Hirsch, Boris, Elke Jahn & Thomas Zwick (2020): Birds, Birds, Birds: Co-Worker Similarity, Workplace Diversity and Job Switches. In: BJIR, Jg. 58, H. 3, S. 690-718., 2019-11-01. DOI:10.1111/bjir.12509

Abstract

"We investigate how the demographic composition of the workforce along the sex, nationality, education, age and tenure dimensions affects job switches. Fitting duration models for workers' job‐to‐job turnover rate that control for workplace fixed effects in a representative sample of large manufacturing plants in Germany during 1975 - 2016, we find that larger co‐worker similarity in all five dimensions substantially depresses job‐to‐job moves, whereas workplace diversity is of limited importance. In line with conventional wisdom, which has that birds of a feather flock together, our interpretation of the results is that workers prefer having co‐workers of their kind and place less value on diverse workplaces." (Author's abstract, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))

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Jenkins, Stephen P. (2020): Was the mid-2000s drop in the British job change rate genuine or a survey design effect? In: Economics Letters, Jg. 194. DOI:10.1016/j.econlet.2020.109383

Abstract

"The year-on-year job change rate fell sharply, from 18% in 2005 to around 13% in 2006, according to British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) estimates. This fall coincides with the introduction of dependent interviewing to the BHPS, intended to reduce measurement error and improve consistency. Estimates from models of job change misclassification (Hausman et al., 1998) show that reduced measurement error cannot account for the fall in the job change rate. This suggests that the fall was genuine." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2020 Elsevier) ((en))

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Kosteas, Vasilios D. (2020): Occupational concentration and outcomes for displaced workers. In: Papers in Regional Science, Jg. 99, H. 4, S. 977-997. DOI:10.1111/pirs.12507

Abstract

"Displaced workers who end up changing occupations tend to suffer larger wage losses than those who do not. This paper examines the effect of the occupational concentration of employment in the local labour market (LLM) on the likelihood of being employed and (conditional on employment) having changed occupations for displaced workers. I find that workers who do not possess a postsecondary degree are less likely to be employed or to have changed occupations in more occupationally concentrated labour markets. By contrast occupational concentration does not affect these outcomes for more educated workers. These findings are consistent with a pattern where less educated workers focus job searches within their current LLM." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))

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Kourtellos, Andros, Christa Marr & Chih Ming Tan (2020): Local Intergenerational Mobility. In: European Economic Review, Jg. 126. DOI:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2020.103460

Abstract

"Using NLSY data we investigate whether the observed patterns of economic mobility (as measured by income and educational attainment) exhibit heterogeneity across socioeconomic groups and whether the nature of the heterogeneity can be explained by different levels of persistence in the intergenerational transmission of cognitive and non-cognitive abilities across these groups. In doing so we employ the varying coefficient model (VCM) to estimate nonparametric (local) measures of intergenerational mobility of those outcome variables. By local we mean that the persistence coefficients are modeled as smooth functions of log parental permanent income. Our findings show that intergenerational mobility exhibits nonlinear patterns. Individuals with different parental income are characterized by different degrees of intergenerational mobility. Moreover, we find evidence that suggests cognitive abilities play a role in explaining intergenerational mobility. These findings provide some support for a new class of family investment models that emphasize the role of such abilities in economic mobility." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2020 Elsevier) ((en))

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Medici, Guri, Cécile Tschopp, Gudela Grote & Andreas Hirschi (2020): Grass roots of occupational change: Understanding mobility in vocational careers. In: Journal of vocational behavior, Jg. 122. DOI:10.1016/j.jvb.2020.103480

Abstract

"Most prior research on career mobility has focused on people changing jobs and organizations. We know little about processes involved in individuals changing occupations, although these changes cause high individual, organizational, and public costs. Moreover, occupations are increasingly acknowledged as important anchors in times of more boundaryless careers. The current study investigates the impact of early satisfaction with the trained occupation (VET satisfaction) on occupational change by analyzing 10-year longitudinal panel data gathered in Switzerland (N = 905). Results from regression analyses showed that VET satisfaction predicted occupational change up to ten years after graduation. VET satisfaction in turn was affected by work characteristics experienced during VET, and VET satisfaction mediated the relationship between work characteristics during VET and occupational change. Using a subsample (N = 464) for which data were available on jobs taken up after graduation, we showed that VET satisfaction explained occupational change over and above work satisfaction in jobs held after graduation, highlighting the formative role of early experience during VET. Our findings inform both theory and practice. To fully comprehend occupational change, established turnover models also need to reflect on early formative vocational experiences. Firms should pay attention to favorable work characteristics already during VET and adjust adverse conditions to reduce undesired occupational mobility." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2021 Elsevier) ((en))

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Mussida, Chiara & Luca Zanin (2020): I found a better job opportunity! Voluntary job mobility of employees and temporary contracts before and after the great recession in France, Italy and Spain. In: Empirical economics, Jg. 59, H. 1, S. 47-98. DOI:10.1007/s00181-019-01622-7

Abstract

"The voluntary mobility of employees who change employers for a better job remains an unexplored area of labour market transitions in many European countries. We analyse whether and how the recent great economic recession has contributed to modifications in such voluntary job mobility when employees have a temporary contract in France, Italy and Spain. We analyse cross-sectional data from the EU-SILC survey for two sub-periods: 2005–2008 and 2009–2015. We find that employees who have invested in human capital, who are young and who work more than 40 h per week are more likely than their counterparts to change employers for a better opportunity given a temporary contract. After the great recession, we observe a curbing of the studied voluntary job mobility that is likely attributable to the difficulty experienced by employees in finding a job that provides more benefits than their current one, with heterogeneous effects across socio-economic and demographic characteristics and the country of residence." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © Springer-Verlag) ((en))

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Simpson, Brent & David Melamed (2020): What do the upwardly mobile think they deserve, and why? A multi-method investigation. In: Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, Jg. 65. DOI:10.1016/j.rssm.2019.100459

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Stijepic, Damir (2020): Job mobility and sorting. Theory and evidence. In: Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, Jg. 240, H. 1, S. 19-49. DOI:10.1515/jbnst-2018-0047

Abstract

"Motivated by the canonical (random) on-the-job search model, I measure a person's ability to sort into higher ranked jobs by the risk ratio of job-to-job transitions to transitions into unemployment. I show that this measure possesses various desirable features. Making use of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), I study the relation between human capital and the risk ratio of job-to-job transitions to transitions into unemployment. Formal education tends to be positively associated with this risk ratio. General experience and occupational tenure have a pronounced negative correlation with both job-to-job transitions and transitions into unemployment, leaving the risk ratio, however, mostly unaffected. In contrast, the estimates suggest that human-capital concepts that take into account the multidimensionality of skills, e.g. versatility, play a prominent role." (Author's abstract, © De Gruyter) ((en))

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Zimmerman, Ryan D., Brian W. Swider & Jeffrey B. Arthur (2020): Does turnover destination matter? Differentiating antecedents of occupational change versus organizational change. In: Journal of vocational behavior, Jg. 121. DOI:10.1016/j.jvb.2020.103470

Abstract

"In this study, we seek to understand why some employees decide to leave organizations to change occupations instead of either changing organizations while staying in the same occupation or staying in the same job at the same organization. Moving beyond the existing focus on antecedents of occupational commitment and occupation withdrawal intentions, we employ an occupational embeddedness framework to examine five occupational factors as potential drivers of occupational change. Using a large dataset of 3201 professionals, our results indicate that several factors underlying the overarching concept of occupational embeddedness (e.g., wage level, non-core job duties, occupational investment, and moonlighting) were related to individuals' likelihood of changing occupations compared to changing organizations within the same occupation or staying at the same organization. Our findings suggest that specific turnover destination may be important to understanding why people leave jobs. We discuss the theoretical implications of our findings, along with practical implications at the occupational, organizational, and individual levels regarding how occupational turnover may be prevented." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2020 Elsevier) ((en))

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Aepli, Manuel (2019): Technological change and occupation mobility: A task-based approach to horizontal mismatch. (GLO discussion paper / Global Labor Organization 361), Maastricht, 48 S.

Abstract

"Technological change and its impacts on labour markets are a much-discussed topic in economics. Economists generally assume that new technology penetrating the labour market shifts firms' task demand. Given individuals' acquired and supplied skills, these task demand shifts potentially foster horizontal skill mismatches, e.g. individuals not working in their learned occupations. In this paper, I first analyse the relation between task shifting technological change and individuals' horizontal mismatch incidence. Second, I estimate individuals' mismatch wage penalties triggered by this relation. The present paper proposes an instrumental variable (IV) approach to map this mechanism and to obtain causal estimates on mismatch wage penalties. Applying this empirical strategy yields a wage penalty of roughly 12% for horizontally mismatched individuals." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Amior, Michael (2019): Education and geographical mobility. The role of wage rents. (CEP discussion paper 1616), London, 59 S.

Abstract

"Geographical mobility is known to be crucial to the adjustment of local labor markets. But there is severe inequity in the incidence of mobility: better educated Americans make many more long-distance moves. I argue this is a consequence of larger wage offer dispersion, independent of geography. In a thin labor market, this generates larger wage rents (in excess of workers' reservations) in new job matches, particularly for younger workers who are just beginning their careers. If an offer happens to arrive from a distant location, these larger rents are more likely to justify the cost of moving - even if the offer distribution is invariant geographically. Also, local job creation will elicit a larger migratory response. I motivate my claims with new evidence on mobility patterns and subjective moving costs. And I test my hypothesis by estimating wage returns to local and long-distance job matching over the jobs ladder. Though I focus on education differentials, this paper offers new insights for understanding geographical immobility more generally" (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Barlevy, Gadi & Derek Neal (2019): Allocating effort and talent in professional labor markets. In: Journal of labor economics, Jg. 37, H. 1, S. 187-246. DOI:10.1086/698899

Abstract

"In many professional service firms, new associates work long hours while competing in up-or-out promotion contests. Our model explains why. We argue that the productivity of skilled partners in professional service firms (e.g., law, consulting, investment banking, and public accounting) is quite large relative to the productivity of their peers who are competent and experienced but not well suited to the partner role. Therefore, these firms adopt personnel policies that facilitate the identification of new partners. In our model, both heavy workloads and up-or-out rules serve this purpose." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Bol, Thijs, Christina Ciocca Eller, Herman G. van de Werfhorst & Thomas A. DiPrete (2019): School-to-work linkages, educational mismatches, and labor market outcomes. In: American Sociological Review, Jg. 84, H. 2, S. 275-307. DOI:10.1177/0003122419836081

Abstract

"A recurring question in public and scientific debates is whether occupation-specific skills enhance labor market outcomes. Is it beneficial to have an educational degree that is linked to only one or a small set of occupations? To answer this question, we generalize existing models of the effects of (mis)match between education and occupation on labor market outcomes. Specifically, we incorporate the structural effects of linkage strength between school and work, which vary considerably across industrialized countries. In an analysis of France, Germany, and the United States, we find that workers have higher earnings when they are in occupations that match their educational level and field of study, but the size of this earnings boost depends on the clarity and strength of the pathway between their educational credential and the labor market. The earnings premium associated with a good occupational match is larger in countries where the credential has a stronger link to the labor market, but the penalty for a mismatch is also greater in such countries. Moreover, strong linkage reduces unemployment risk. These findings add nuance to often-made arguments that countries with loosely structured educational systems have more flexible labor markets and produce better labor market outcomes for workers. An institutional environment that promotes strong school-to-work pathways appears to be an effective strategy for providing workers with secure, well-paying jobs." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Forsythe, Eliza (2019): Careers within firms: Occupational mobility over the lifecycle. In: Labour, Jg. 33, H. 3, S. 241-277. DOI:10.1111/labr.12146

Abstract

"With falling labor market dynamism in the United States, opportunities within firms take on increasing importance in young workers' career progression. Developing a variety of occupational ranking metrics, I show that occupational mobility within firms follows a standard lifecycle pattern in which the frequency, distance, and wage return from mobility fall with age. However, when upward and downward mobility are considered separately, the distance of moves increases over the lifecycle. Thus, while young workers make the smallest distance occupational moves up and down, they have the largest wage gains and losses associated with these moves. I find that wage growth for young workers deteriorated substantially in the first decade of the 2000s, primarily driven by a reduction in wage growth within firms, whereas mid-career workers have experienced no such change. I argue this is most likely driven by the dramatic fall in employer-to-employer mobility for young workers since the early 2000s. Encouragingly, wage growth has improved markedly for young workers since 2012." (Author's abstract, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))

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Fries-Tersch, Elena, Tugce Tugran, Agnieszka Markowska & Matthew Jones (2019): 2018 annual report on intra-EU labour mobility. Final report December 2018. (... annual report on intra-EU labour mobility / European Commission), Luxembourg, 194 S. DOI:10.2767/25927

Abstract

"The annual report on intra-EU labour mobility provides updated information on labormobility trends in EU and EFTA countries. Annual developments in stocks and flows are analyzed in the perspective of longer-term trends. The analysis considers the mobility of all working-age citizens (20-64 years) as well as the mobility of those who are active (employed and unemployed). The report also looks at indicators of economic integration of mobile citizens, such as employment/unemployment rates and occupations. This year, two specific topics on the qualifications and the household composition of the EU-28 movers are further analyzed. The two main data sources used are Eurostat population and migration statistics – for mobility of all citizens – and the European Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) for the analysis of mobility of active citizens and economic integration. For methodological reasons estimated numbers of EU movers differ." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Gabe, Todd, Jaison R. Abel & Richard Florida (2019): Can workers in low-end occupations climb the job ladder? In: Economic Development Quarterly, Jg. 33, H. 2, S. 92-106. DOI:10.1177/0891242419838324

Abstract

"There is growing concern over rising economic inequality, the decline of the middle class, and a polarization of the U.S. workforce. This study examines the extent to which workers in the United States transition from low-end to higher-quality occupations, and explores the factors associated with such a move up the job ladder. Using data covering the expansion following the Great Recession (2011-2017) and focusing on short-term (i.e., less than 1 year) labor market transitions, the authors find that just slightly more than 5% of workers in low-end occupations moved into a higher-quality occupation. Instead, around 70% of workers in low-end occupations stayed in the same occupation, 11% exited the labor force, 7% became unemployed, and 6% switched to a different low-end occupation. Study results point to the importance of educational attainment in helping workers successfully climb the job ladder." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Garnero, Andrea, Alexander Hijzen & Sébastien Martin (2019): More unequal, but more mobile? Earnings inequality and mobility in OECD countries. In: Labour economics, Jg. 56, H. January, S. 26-35. DOI:10.1016/j.labeco.2018.08.005

Abstract

"This paper provides comprehensive cross-country evidence on the relationship between earnings inequality and intra-generational mobility by simulating individual earnings and employment trajectories using short panels for 24 OECD countries. On average across countries, only 20% of earnings inequality in a given year evens out over the life cycle as a result of mobility. This suggests that the bulk of earnings inequality at a given time is permanent. Moreover, mobility and inequality are positively correlated across countries, suggesting that international differences in life-time inequality tend to be less pronounced than inequality differences in a given year. The positive correlation is largely driven by employment mobility - movements between employment and unemployment - and most pronounced in the bottom of the distribution." (Author's abstract, © 2018 Elsevier) ((en))