IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/soecon/v69y2002i2p429-443.html

Wages and the Composition of Experience

Author

Listed:
  • Arthur H. Goldsmith
  • Jonathan R. Veum

Abstract

This paper provides evidence on the relation between alternative forms of experience and wages using data drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Prior labor market experience is segmented into mutually exclusive categories based on industry and occupation to examine how subsequent employers value skills acquired on previous jobs. We find that most forms of experience, including tenure at the current job, provide a comparable return. However, the wage return to prior experience in a different occupation and industry is significantly lower. Such “career changes” constitute over half of all prior work experience among workers in their mid‐30s.

Suggested Citation

  • Arthur H. Goldsmith & Jonathan R. Veum, 2002. "Wages and the Composition of Experience," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 69(2), pages 429-443, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:69:y:2002:i:2:p:429-443
    DOI: 10.1002/j.2325-8012.2002.tb00501.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2325-8012.2002.tb00501.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/j.2325-8012.2002.tb00501.x?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Loewenstein, Mark A & Spletzer, James R, 1998. "Dividing the Costs and Returns to General Training," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(1), pages 142-171, January.
    2. Kathryn L. Shaw, 1984. "A Formulation of the Earnings Function Using the Concept of Occupational Investment," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 19(3), pages 319-340.
    3. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Introduction to "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings"," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 1-4, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Neal, Derek, 1995. "Industry-Specific Human Capital: Evidence from Displaced Workers," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 13(4), pages 653-677, October.
    5. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1, January.
    6. Joseph G. Altonji & Charles R. Pierret, 2001. "Employer Learning and Statistical Discrimination," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(1), pages 313-350.
    7. Neal, Derek, 1999. "The Complexity of Job Mobility among Young Men," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(2), pages 237-261, April.
    8. Parent, Daniel, 2000. "Industry-Specific Capital and the Wage Profile: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(2), pages 306-323, April.
    9. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling and Earnings," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 41-63, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Paula Andrea Nieto-Aleman & Klaus Ulrich & María Guijarro-García & Esther Pagán-Castaño, 2023. "Does talent management matter? Talent management and the creation of competitive and sustainable entrepreneurship models," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 1055-1068, September.
    2. Adams, Scott J. & Heywood, John S. & Ullman, Darin F. & Venkatesh, Shrathinth, 2022. "Social jobs and the returns to drinking," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).

    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. Carl Sanders & Christopher Taber, 2012. "Life-Cycle Wage Growth and Heterogeneous Human Capital," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 399-425, July.
    2. Kritkorn Nawakitphaitoon, 2014. "Occupational Human Capital and Wages: The Role of Skills Transferability Across Occupations," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 63-87, March.
    3. Ayaka Nakamura, 2019. "The Effect of Employer Tenure on Wages in Japan," OSIPP Discussion Paper 19E007, Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University.
    4. Robert Gibbons & Michael Waldman, 2006. "Enriching a Theory of Wage and Promotion Dynamics inside Firms," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(1), pages 59-108, January.
    5. Christina Gathmann & Uta Schönberg, 2010. "How General Is Human Capital? A Task-Based Approach," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(1), pages 1-49, January.
    6. Zsolt Csáfordi & László Lőrincz & Balázs Lengyel & Károly Miklós Kiss, 2020. "Productivity spillovers through labor flows: productivity gap, multinational experience and industry relatedness," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 86-121, February.
    7. Ralph Stinebrickner & Todd Stinebrickner & Paul Sullivan, 2019. "Job Tasks, Time Allocation, and Wages," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(2), pages 399-433.
    8. Maxim Poletaev & Chris Robinson, 2008. "Human Capital Specificity: Evidence from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and Displaced Worker Surveys, 1984-2000," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(3), pages 387-420, July.
    9. Parent, Daniel, 2002. "Matching, human capital, and the covariance structure of earnings," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 375-404, July.
    10. Robert Gibbons & Lawrence F. Katz & Thomas Lemieux & Daniel Parent, 2005. "Comparative Advantage, Learning, and Sectoral Wage Determination," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(4), pages 681-724, October.
    11. Dougherty, Christopher, 2000. "Impact of work experience and training in the current and previous occupations on earnings: micro evidence from the national longitudinal survey of youth," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 20189, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Achyuta Adhvaryu & Anant Nyshadham & Jorge Tamayo, 2023. "Managerial Quality and Productivity Dynamics," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(4), pages 1569-1607.
    13. Benoit Dostie & Pierre Thomas Léger, 2014. "Firm-Sponsored Classroom Training: Is It Worth It for Older Workers?," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 40(4), pages 377-390, December.
    14. Theodore Koutmeridis, 2013. "The Market for "Rough Diamonds": Information, Finance and Wage Inequality," CDMA Working Paper Series 201307, Centre for Dynamic Macroeconomic Analysis, revised 14 Oct 2013.
    15. Winston, Ashley, 2002. "Developing a Cost of Capital Module for Computable General Equilibrium Modelling," Conference papers 331042, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    16. Kenneth L. Sørensen & Rune Vejlin, 2014. "Return To Experience And Initial Wage Level: Do Low Wage Workers Catch Up?," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 984-1006, September.
    17. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2373-2437 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Paul Ryan, 2001. "The School-to-Work Transition: A Cross-National Perspective," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(1), pages 34-92, March.
    19. Gensowski, Miriam, 2018. "Personality, IQ, and lifetime earnings," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 170-183.
    20. Taro Kimura & Yoshiyuki Kurachi & Tomohiro Sugo, 2019. "Decreasing Wage Returns to Human Capital: Analysis of Wage and Job Experience Using Micro Data of Workers," Bank of Japan Working Paper Series 19-E-12, Bank of Japan.
    21. Danielle Lewis & Dek Terrell, 2001. "Experience, Tenure, and the Perceptions of Employers," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 67(3), pages 578-597, January.

    More about this item

    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:wly:soecon:v:69:y:2002:i:2:p:429-443. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)2325-8012 .

    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.