IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tiu/tiucen/8c99a292-9f34-4ce8-8fd9-9ad19dc24734.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Why do Worker-Firm Matches Dissolve?

Author

Listed:
  • Gielen, A. C.

    (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research)

  • van Ours, J.C.

    (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research)

Abstract

In a dynamic labor market worker-firm matches dissolve frequently causing workers to separate and firms to look for replacements. A separation may be initiated by the worker (a quit) or the firm (a layoff), or may result from a joint decision. A dissolution of a worker-firm match may be inefficient if it can be prevented by wage renegotiation. In this paper we study worker separations in the Dutch labor market. From an analysis of matched worker-firm data we conclude that both quits and layoffs are less likely to occur in high quality matches. We also find that workers with a high propensity to quit are offered higher wages to prevent them to quit. Similarly, workers with a high layoff probability give up some of their wage to prevent them from being laid-off. Despite these wage renegotiations some inefficiency in separations remains. However, there is a clear difference between quits and layoffs. Whereas inefficient quits are rare, inefficient layoffs occur frequently. These phenomena may be related to downward wage rigidity. While it is easy to renegotiate higher wages to prevent quits, it is much more difficult to renegotiate lower wages to prevent layoffs even if that would overall be beneficial to the workers involved.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This ab
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Gielen, A. C. & van Ours, J.C., 2006. "Why do Worker-Firm Matches Dissolve?," Discussion Paper 2006-57, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:tiu:tiucen:8c99a292-9f34-4ce8-8fd9-9ad19dc24734
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://pure.uvt.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/778318/57.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Parent, Daniel, 2002. "Matching, human capital, and the covariance structure of earnings," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 375-404, July.
    2. Masanori Hashimoto & Ben T. Yu, 1980. "Specific Capital, Employmemt Contracts, and Wage Rigidity," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 11(2), pages 536-549, Autumn.
    3. Anabela Carneiro & Pedro Portugal, 2008. "Wages and the Risk of Displacement," Research in Labor Economics, in: Work, Earnings and Other Aspects of the Employment Relation, pages 251-276, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    4. Marcela Perticara, "undated". "Wage Mobility Through Job Mobility," ILADES-UAH Working Papers inv141, Universidad Alberto Hurtado/School of Economics and Business.
    5. Dustmann, Christian & Pereira, Sonia C., 2005. "Wage Growth and Job Mobility in the U.K. and Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 1586, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Gielen, Anne C. & van Ours, Jan C., 2006. "Age-specific cyclical effects in job reallocation and labor mobility," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 493-504, August.
    7. John Haltiwanger & Milan Vodopivec, 2003. "Worker flows, job flows and firm wage policies," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 11(2), pages 253-290, June.
    8. Parsons, Donald O, 1972. "Specific Human Capital: An Application to Quit Rates and Layoff Rates," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(6), pages 1120-1143, Nov.-Dec..
    9. Robert E. Hall, 2005. "Employment Efficiency and Sticky Wages: Evidence from Flows in the Labor Market," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(3), pages 397-407, August.
    10. Malcomson, James M., 1999. "Individual employment contracts," Handbook of Labor Economics,in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 35, pages 2291-2372 Elsevier.
    11. Blanchflower, David G, 1991. "Fear, Unemployment and Pay Flexibility," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 101(406), pages 483-496, May.
    12. McLaughlin, Kenneth J, 1991. "A Theory of Quits and Layoffs with Efficient Turnover," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(1), pages 1-29, February.
    13. Hamermesh, Daniel S, 1988. "Plant Closings and the Value of the Firm," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 70(4), pages 580-586, November.
    14. Gerard A. Pfann, 2006. "Downsizing and Heterogeneous Firing Costs," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(1), pages 158-170, February.
    15. Robert Shimer, 2005. "Discussion of Robert E. Hall's REStat Lecture "Employment Efficiency and Sticky Wages: Evidence from Flows in the Labor Market"," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(3), pages 408-410, August.
    16. Bishop, John H, 1990. "Job Performance, Turnover, and Wage Growth," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 8(3), pages 363-386, July.
    17. Haltiwanger, John C. & Vodopivec, Milan, 2002. "Worker Flows, Job Flows and Firm Wage Policies: An Analysis of Slovenia," IZA Discussion Papers 569, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Garey Ramey & Joel Watson, 1997. "Contractual Fragility, Job Destruction, and Business Cycles," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(3), pages 873-911.
    19. Jovanovic, Boyan, 1979. "Job Matching and the Theory of Turnover," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(5), pages 972-990, October.
    20. Gary S. Becker, 1964. "Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education, First Edition," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number beck-5, March.
    21. Murphy, Kevin M & Topel, Robert H, 2002. "Estimation and Inference in Two-Step Econometric Models," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(1), pages 88-97, January.
    22. Joseph G. Altonji & Robert A. Shakotko, 1987. "Do Wages Rise with Job Seniority?," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 54(3), pages 437-459.
    23. Hall, Robert E & Lazear, Edward P, 1984. "The Excess Sensitivity of Layoffs and Quits to Demand," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(2), pages 233-257, April.
    24. Edward P. Lazear, 1984. "Raids and Offermatching," NBER Working Papers 1419, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    25. Shintaro Yamaguchi, 2010. "Job Search, Bargaining, and Wage Dynamics," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(3), pages 595-631, July.
    26. Jeff Borland & Jenny Lye, 1996. "Matching and Mobility in the Market for Australian Rules Football Coaches," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 50(1), pages 143-158, October.
    27. John Haltiwanger & Milan Vodopivec, 2003. "Worker flows, job flows and firm wage policies," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 11(2), pages 253-290, June.
    28. Galizzi, Monica & Lang, Kevin, 1998. "Relative Wages, Wage Growth, and Quit Behavior," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(2), pages 367-391, April.
    29. Borland, Jeff, 1987. "The Demand for Australian Rules Football," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 63(182), pages 220-230, September.
    30. Gary S. Becker, 1962. "Investment in Human Capital: A Theoretical Analysis," NBER Chapters, in: Investment in Human Beings, pages 9-49, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    31. Dale-Olsen, Harald, 2006. "Wages, fringe benefits and worker turnover," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 87-105, February.
    32. O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), 1999. "Handbook of Labor Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 3, number 3.
    33. John Haltiwanger, 1982. "Asymmetric Information, Long Term Labor Contracts, Inefficient Job Separations," UCLA Economics Working Papers 276, UCLA Department of Economics.
    34. Garcia Perez, Jose Ignacio & Rebollo Sanz, Yolanda, 2005. "Wage changes through job mobility in Europe: A multinomial endogenous switching approach," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 531-555, August.
    35. Farber, Henry S., 1999. "Mobility and stability: The dynamics of job change in labor markets," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 37, pages 2439-2483, Elsevier.
    36. Mortensen, Dale T, 1988. "Wages, Separations, and Job Tenure: On-the-Job Specific Training or Matching?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(4), pages 445-471, October.
    37. Garen, John E, 1989. "Job-Match Quality as an Error Component and the Wage-Tenure Profile: A Comparison and Test of Alternative Estimators," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 7(2), pages 245-252, April.
    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. Alex Bryson & Babatunde Buraimo & Alex Farnell & Rob Simmons, 2021. "Time To Go? Head Coach Quits and Dismissals in Professional Football," De Economist, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 81-105, February.
    2. Gielen, Anne C. & van Ours, Jan C., 2010. "Layoffs, quits and wage negotiations," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 108-111, November.
    3. Gielen, A. C., 2007. "Performance Pay, Training and Labor Mobility," Other publications TiSEM 4e54354b-d7d3-4f97-a618-5, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    4. Kuhn, Johan Moritz, 2007. "My Pay is Too Bad (I Quit). Your Pay is Too Good (You're Fired)," Working Papers 07-5, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Economics.
    5. Pernilla Andersson Joona & Eskil Wadensjö, 2013. "The best and the brightest or the least successful? Self-employment entry among male wage-earners in Sweden," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 155-172, January.

    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. Gielen, Anne C. & van Ours, Jan C., 2010. "Layoffs, quits and wage negotiations," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 108-111, November.
    2. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2373-2437 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Antonio Caparrós Ruiz & Mª. Lucía Navarro Gómez, 2002. "Factors affecting quits and layoffs in Spain," Economic Working Papers at Centro de Estudios Andaluces E2002/16, Centro de Estudios Andaluces.
    4. Dan A. Black & Lars Skipper & Jeffrey A. Smith & Jeffrey Andrew Smith, 2023. "Firm Training," CESifo Working Paper Series 10268, CESifo.
    5. Mertens, Antje & Bergemann, Annette, 2004. "Job Stability Trends, Layoffs and Transitions to Unemployment - An Empirical Analysis for West Germany," CEPR Discussion Papers 4792, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Caparros, A. & Navarro, M.L., 2005. "Factors Affecting Quits and Layoffs in Spanish Labour Market," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 5(4).
    7. Joseph G. Altonji & Nicolas Williams, 1992. "The Effects of Labor Market Experience, Job Seniority, and Job Mobility on Wage Growth," NBER Working Papers 4133, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Mengistae, Taye, 1999. "The relative effects of skill formation and job matching on wage growth in Ethiopia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2104, The World Bank.
    9. Pekka Ilmakunnas & Mika Maliranta, 2005. "Worker inflow, outflow, and churning," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(10), pages 1115-1133.
    10. William J. Carrington & Bruce Fallick, 2014. "Why Do Earnings Fall with Job Displacement?," Working Papers (Old Series) 1405, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    11. Peter F. Orazem & Marvin L. Bouillon & Benjamin M. Doran, 2004. "Long‐Term Attachments and Long‐Run Firm Rates of Return," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 71(2), pages 314-333, October.
    12. Bergemann, Annette & Mertens, Antje, 2000. "Job stability trends, layoffs and quits: An empirical analysis for West Germany," SFB 373 Discussion Papers 2001,102, Humboldt University of Berlin, Interdisciplinary Research Project 373: Quantification and Simulation of Economic Processes.
    13. I. Sebastian Buhai & Coen N. Teulings, 2014. "Tenure Profiles and Efficient Separation in a Stochastic Productivity Model," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(2), pages 245-258, April.
    14. Ferreira, Priscila, 2009. "Returns to job mobility: the role of observed and unobserved factors," ISER Working Paper Series 2009-12, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    15. Maria A. Davia, 2010. "Job Mobility And Wage Growth At The Beginning Of The Professional Career In Spain," Revista de Economia Aplicada, Universidad de Zaragoza, Departamento de Estructura Economica y Economia Publica, vol. 18(1), pages 5-34, Spring.
    16. Panigo, Demian & Naticchioni, Paolo, 2004. "Employment protection, job-tenure and short term mobility wage gains," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Couverture Orange) 0402, CEPREMAP.
    17. Bachmann, Ronald & Bauer, Thomas K. & David, Peggy, 2010. "Labour Market Entry Conditions, Wages and Job Mobility," Ruhr Economic Papers 188, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    18. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2291-2372 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Guertzgen, Nicole, 2007. "Job and Worker Reallocation in German Establishments: The Role of Employers? Wage Policies and Labour Market Institutions," ZEW Discussion Papers 07-084, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    20. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2439-2483 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Garcia-Serrano, Carlos & A. Davia, Maria & M. Arranz, Jose, 2005. "Labour market transitions and wage dynamics in Europe," ISER Working Paper Series 2005-17, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    22. Richard Duhautois & Fabrice Gilles & Héloïse Petit, 2009. "Worker flows, job flows and establishment wage differentials: Analysing the case of France," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-00646440, HAL.
    23. Bergin, Adele, 2009. "Job Mobility in Ireland," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 40(1), pages 15-47.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Separations; Quits; Layoffs; Matched worker-firm dataset;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs
    • M51 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions

    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:tiu:tiucen:8c99a292-9f34-4ce8-8fd9-9ad19dc24734. 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: Richard Broekman (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://center.uvt.nl .

    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.