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Occupational Mobility and the Returns to Training

Author

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  • Gueorgui Kambourov
  • Iourii Manovskii
  • Miana Plesca

Abstract

The literature on the returns to training has pointed out that, immediately following a training episode, wages of participants in employer-sponsored training increase substantially while wages of participants in government-sponsored training hardly change. We argue that a clear selection issue has been overlooked by the literature - most of the government-sponsored trainees are occupation switchers while most participants in employer-sponsored training are occupation stayers. An occupational switch involves a substantial destruction of human capital, and once we account for the associated decline in wages we find a large positive impact of both employer- and government-sponsored training on workers' human capital.

Suggested Citation

  • Gueorgui Kambourov & Iourii Manovskii & Miana Plesca, 2012. "Occupational Mobility and the Returns to Training," Working Papers tecipa-444, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-444
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Ci, Wen & Galdo, José & Voia, Marcel & Worswick, Christopher, 2013. "Does adult training benefit Canadian workers?," CLSSRN working papers clsrn_admin-2013-42, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 26 Sep 2013.
    2. Alexandre Costa, Rayssa & Nunes de Almeida, Alexandre & Martins Costa, Edward & Urano de Carvalho Castelar, Pablo & de Souza Nunes, Erivelton, 2022. "The effects of occupational mobility on wages of rehabilitated workers in Brazil," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    3. Viju Raghupathi & Jie Ren & Wullianallur Raghupathi, 2023. "Exploring the Nature and Dimensions of Scientific Mobility: Insights From ORCID Database - A Visualization Approach," International Journal of Technology Diffusion (IJTD), IGI Global, vol. 14(1), pages 1-31, January.
    4. Jones, Stephen, 2012. "The Effectiveness of Training for Displaced Workers with Long Prior Job Tenure," CLSSRN working papers clsrn_admin-2012-3, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 29 Jan 2012.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Training; Human Capital; Occupational Mobility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • H59 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Other
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy
    • M53 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Training

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