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Snakes Or Ladders: Skill Upgrading And Occupational Mobility In The US And UK During The 1990s

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  • Peter Wright
  • Richard Upward

Abstract

It is frequently argued that the process of skill upgrading has both worsened the employment prospects and decreased the relative wages of unskilled workers. However, workers are not immutably either low skill or high skill, and skill upgrading may offer the opportunity for workers to move up the ‘skill ladder’. In this paper we examine the balance of these two effects. We use comparable individual-level panel data from the US and the UK to relate the probability of individual occupational movement to the extent of skill upgrading at the industry level. We find that whilst skill upgrading does indeed have a positive impact on the probability of moving up the job ladder, this is insufficient to outweigh the increased probability of unemployment. We also find that workers moving down or off the ladder suffer large wage penalties.
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Suggested Citation

  • Peter Wright & Richard Upward, 2004. "Snakes Or Ladders: Skill Upgrading And Occupational Mobility In The US And UK During The 1990s," Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2004 114, Royal Economic Society.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecj:ac2004:114
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    Cited by:

    1. Konstantinos Angelopoulos & Spyros Lazarakis & James Malley, 2019. "The Distributional Effects of Peer and Aspirational Pressure," Working Papers 419434468, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    2. Konstantinos Angelopoulos & Spyridon Lazarakis & James Malley, 2019. "The distributional effects of peer and aspirational pressure," Working Papers 2019-06, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    3. Rod Falvey & David Greenaway & Joana Silva, 2018. "International competition, returns to skill and labour market adjustment," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 1000-1024, April.
    4. Robert J. R. Elliott & Joanne Lindley, 2006. "Skill Specificity And Labour Mobility: Occupational And Sectoral Dimensions," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 74(3), pages 389-413, June.

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