IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v258y2026ics0165176525005804.html

Danish flexicurity and occupational mobility: A comparison with the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Carrillo-Tudela, Carlos
  • Darougheh, Saman
  • Visschers, Ludo

Abstract

We provide a detailed international comparison of the occupational mobility of employer switchers using the US Current Population Survey and Danish administrative data (2011–2019). Comparability and measurement issues have stood in the way of good comparisons of occupational mobility rates between the US and European countries more generally. Making progress towards addressing these, we find that the proportion of employer changers that switches occupations is about 20% lower in Denmark, but at occupation-level quite correlated across both countries. Net mobility rates are also positively correlated, but overall lower in Denmark than in the United States.

Suggested Citation

  • Carrillo-Tudela, Carlos & Darougheh, Saman & Visschers, Ludo, 2026. "Danish flexicurity and occupational mobility: A comparison with the United States," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:258:y:2026:i:c:s0165176525005804
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2025.112743
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176525005804
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2025.112743?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bertheau, Antoine & Vejlin, Rune, 2022. "Employer-to-Employer Transitions and Time Aggregation Bias," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    2. Claus Thustrup Kreiner & Michael Svarer, 2022. "Danish Flexicurity: Rights and Duties," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 36(4), pages 81-102, Fall.
    3. Ronald Bachmann & Peggy Bechara & Christina Vonnahme, 2020. "Occupational Mobility in Europe: Extent, Determinants and Consequences," De Economist, Springer, vol. 168(1), pages 79-108, March.
    4. Giuseppe Moscarini & Kaj Thomsson, 2007. "Occupational and Job Mobility in the US," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 109(4), pages 807-836, December.
    5. Gueorgui Kambourov & Iourii Manovskii, 2008. "Rising Occupational And Industry Mobility In The United States: 1968-97," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 49(1), pages 41-79, February.
    6. Carlos Carrillo-Tudela & Saman Darougheh & Ludo Visschers, 2025. "Confused about Careers? Untangling Occupational Mobility, Miscoding and Distance," Edinburgh School of Economics Discussion Paper Series 320, Edinburgh School of Economics, University of Edinburgh.
    7. Maria Koumenta & Mario Pagliero, 2019. "Occupational Regulation in the European Union: Coverage and Wage Effects," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 57(4), pages 818-849, December.
    8. Niklas Engbom, 2022. "Labor Market Fluidity and Human Capital Accumulation," NBER Working Papers 29698, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Borowczyk-Martins, Daniel, 2025. "Employer-to-Employer Mobility and Wages in Europe and the United States," IZA Discussion Papers 17719, IZA Network @ LISER.
    10. Michael W. L. Elsby & Bart Hobijn & Ayşegül Şahin, 2013. "Unemployment Dynamics in the OECD," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(2), pages 530-548, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Antoine Bertheau & Rune Vejlin, 2025. "Job Ladders by Firm Wage and Productivity," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 58, October.
    2. Speer, Jamin D., 2016. "How bad is occupational coding error? A task-based approach," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 166-168.
    3. Henry Hyatt & Erika McEntarfer & Ken Ueda & Alexandria Zhang, 2016. "Interstate Migration and Employer-to-Employer Transitions in the U.S.: New Evidence from Administrative Records Data," Working Papers 16-44, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    4. Maximiliano Dvorkin, 2021. "International trade and labor reallocation: misclassification errors, mobility, and switching costs," Working Papers 2021-014, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, revised Jun 2024.
    5. Theodore Papageorgiou, 2022. "Occupational Matching and Cities," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 82-132, July.
    6. Sagiri Kitao & Lars Ljungqvist & Thomas Sargent, 2017. "A Life-Cycle Model of Trans-Atlantic Employment Experiences," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 25, pages 320-349, April.
    7. Ma, Jie, 2020. "High skilled immigration and the market for skilled labor: The role of occupational choice," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    8. Guido Matias Cortes, 2016. "Where Have the Middle-Wage Workers Gone? A Study of Polarization Using Panel Data," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(1), pages 63-105.
    9. Carlos Carrillo‐Tudela & Ludo Visschers, 2023. "Unemployment and Endogenous Reallocation Over the Business Cycle," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 91(3), pages 1119-1153, May.
    10. repec:bdp:wpaper:2015001 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Mocetti, Sauro & Rizzica, Lucia & Roma, Giacomo, 2021. "Regulated occupations in Italy: Extent and labour market effects," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    12. Namrata Singha Roy & Niladri Ghosh, 2024. "Understanding Labor Market Dynamics in Urban India Amidst the Pandemic: A Study Employing Supervised Learning Methods," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 22(4), pages 883-909, December.
    13. Jaison R. Abel & Richard Florida & Todd M. Gabe, 2018. "Can low-wage workers find better jobs?," Staff Reports 846, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    14. By Barbara Mueller & Jürg Schweri, 2015. "How specific is apprenticeship training? Evidence from inter-firm and occupational mobility after graduation," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 67(4), pages 1057-1077.
    15. Carrillo-Tudela, Carlos & Hobijn, Bart & She, Powen & Visschers, Ludo, 2016. "The extent and cyclicality of career changes: Evidence for the U.K," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 18-41.
    16. Carlos Carrillo-Tudela & Fraser Summerfield & Ludo Visschers, 2025. "Workers' Task and Employer Mobility over the Business Cycle," Edinburgh School of Economics Discussion Paper Series 315, Edinburgh School of Economics, University of Edinburgh.
    17. Hans Schytte Sigaard, 2022. "Labor Supply Responsiveness to Tax Reforms," Economics Working Papers 2022-04, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    18. Gaetano Basso & Salvatore Lo Bello & Francesca Subioli, 2023. "Labor market dynamics and geographical reallocations," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1430, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    19. Fitzenberger, Bernd & Licklederer, Stefanie & Zwiener, Hanna, 2015. "Mobility across firms and occupations among graduates from apprenticeship," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 138-151.
    20. Alexandre Ounnas, 2020. "Worker Flows and Occupations in the CPS 1976-2010: A Framework for Adjusting the Data," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2020008, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    21. Bluedorn, John & Hansen, Niels-Jakob & Noureldin, Diaa & Shibata, Ippei & Tavares, Marina M., 2023. "Transitioning to a greener labor market: Cross-country evidence from microdata," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:258:y:2026:i:c:s0165176525005804. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.