Inter-industry labor mobility in Taiwan, China

Do flexible labor markets lubricate growth? Using data from Taiwan, China, to analyze the effects of labor market flexibility, the authors find that: 1) Workers are more likely to move to industries that tend to be similar to their industry of origin (including intrasectoral moves that would be considered intersectoraal if there were more sectoral disaggregation). The degree of similarity between two industries is measured in several ways, all of them based on the input-output flows across industries. Workers are more likely to move from industry"i"to industry"j"if"i"supplies a large share of"j's"inputs, receives a large share of its inputs from"j,"or uses many of the same inputs. 2) Moves to more similar industries produce larger wage gains. This is especially true when the industries'similarity is based on their using many of the same inputs. Thid may be partly because the close proximity of industries, occupations, and individuals provides an environment in which ideas flow quickly from person to person. 3) Gains are more likely to accrue to industries as a result of labor mobility.