An Empirical Analysis of Interfirm Mobility in Italy

We study the labor market histories of overlapping generations of young Italian workers during the years 1974-1994. We find evidence that worker mobility is higher among younger cohorts, which suggests that the Italian labor market is becoming more “flexible”. We also find that workers in our sample have on average significantly lower number of jobs than American young workers, studies by Topel and Ward. Finally, important differences in labor market attachment and in job mobility patterns can be partially captured by gender, first occupation held in the labor market, region of birth and cohort. Male employees hold more and shorter jobs than female employees, and younger cohorts are more mobile than older ones. Workers born in the South hold fewer jobs than workers born in the North-West, and their jobs end earlier. This is consistent with the fact that individuals born in the South spend comparatively less time in private employment than workers born in other areas of the country and have a higher probability of leaving the administrative records for good.