Abstract

'Firms and workers' careers' is a follow-up project of three ongoing IAB research projects: Firm expansion in imperfect labor markets (3564), Learning in good firms (4007) and Employment and firm market power and in the gig economy (4211). The project addresses the broad question of how firms impact the careers of workers. We test the perspective that careers may not be determined exclusively by a worker’s skills but also by the firm where a worker deploys her skills. First, it analyzes the role of firms’ wage-setting power in determining workers’ pay. Second, it analyzes differences between workers in returns to experience depending on whether their experience was gained in low- vs. high-productivity firms. Third, it analyzes how working at a relatively new kind of firm, i.e. a gig economy firm, shapes the careers of workers.