Abstract
This paper applies Lazear’s skill-weights approach (2009) to analyze the specificity of skill combinations of various occupations and its effects on occupational mobility and wages. The results show that the more specific an occupation, the smaller the probability of an occupational change. We also identify clusters of occupations characterized by similar skill combinations and find that employees in specific occupations have a comparatively higher probability of changing occupations within a skill cluster than between skill clusters. Moreover, occupational mobility within a skill cluster results in wage gains, while between clusters it results in wage losses. Therefore, the acquired skill combination and the resulting skill cluster, rather than the occupation per se, crucially determines mobility. Thus, for educational policies, it is more important to study whether a skill cluster is sustainable than an occupation.
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This research is partly funded by the Swiss Federal Office for Professional Education and Technology through its Leading House on Economics of Education, Firm Behaviour and Training Policies. We thank the participants at the SASE in Paris, the TASKS-workshop in Nuremberg, the research seminars at the University of Zurich, and particularly Ed Lazear for helpful comments and suggestions. The data used in this paper from the «BIBB/BAuA Employment Survey» were collected by the German Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung, BIBB) and the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin, BAuA). The producers of the data do not bear any responsibility for the analysis and interpretation of the data in this paper.
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Geel, R., Backes-Gellner, U. Occupational mobility within and between skill clusters: an empirical analysis based on the skill-weights approach. Empirical Res Voc Ed Train 3, 21–38 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03546496
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03546496