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Career Choice and Wage Growth

Author

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  • Ronni Pavan

    (Economics University of Rochester)

Abstract

This paper develops and estimates a search model in which career-specific and firm-specific matches determine job mobility and wage growth. Each worker-firm and worker-career relationship is characterized by a match that evolves stochastically over time. At each period, a worker has three options. He can: 1) stay at his current firm, 2) draw a new firm-specific match by changing employer or 3) change career by drawing a new career and firm-specific match. I calculate the likelihood function treating the model as a non-Gaussian state-space model where the unobserved state variables are the firm and career matches and the non-gaussianity is due to the selection process. I use the structural estimates to calculate ex-ante and ex-post returns to firm tenure or career experience. The implied estimates of the returns are different from the estimates that I would find using standard IV techniques. In order to understand the causes of these differences, I show that these IV techniques are not able to consistently estimate the parameters of a search model like the one presented in this paper.

Suggested Citation

  • Ronni Pavan, 2006. "Career Choice and Wage Growth," 2006 Meeting Papers 504, Society for Economic Dynamics.
  • Handle: RePEc:red:sed006:504
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bowlus, Audra J. & Liu, Huju, 2013. "The contributions of search and human capital to earnings growth over the life cycle," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 305-331.
    2. Gueorgui Kambourov & Iourii Manovskii, 2009. "Occupational Specificity Of Human Capital," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 50(1), pages 63-115, February.
    3. Nathaniel Baum-Snow & Ronni Pavan, 2012. "Understanding the City Size Wage Gap," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 79(1), pages 88-127.
    4. Nathaniel Baum-Snow & Ronni Pavan, 2012. "Understanding the City Size Wage Gap," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 79(1), pages 88-127.
    5. Shintaro Yamaguchi, 2012. "Tasks and Heterogeneous Human Capital," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 30(1), pages 1-53.
    6. Alexandros Zangelidis, 2008. "Occupational And Industry Specificity Of Human Capital In The British Labour Market," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 55(4), pages 420-443, September.
    7. Wiebke Schulz & Ineke Maas, 2010. "Studying historical occupational careers with multilevel growth models," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 23(24), pages 669-696.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Career choice; wage growth; structural estimation; job mobility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • 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
    • C51 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Construction and Estimation

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