The Two Faces of Worker Specialization

Zsofia Barany () and Kerstin Holzheu

No 18320, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: In this paper, we study whether skills can be both an asset and a liability. We show that the accumulation of specialized skills not only increases the return to a specific activity but it also increases the exposure to labor market risks. Specialized workers, once displaced, might take longer to find a job, as their specialized skills might make them less productive across jobs on average. Yet, once they find a suitable job, that job is likely to be better matched to their skills, increasing job stability and entry wages. We empirically verify this hypothesis using displacement events in French and US data and find evidence for these links.

Keywords: Specialization; Skills; Displacement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J41 J63 J64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-07
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP18320 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The two faces of worker specialization (2026)
Working Paper: The Two Faces of Worker Specialization (2025)
Working Paper: The Two Faces of Worker Specialization (2025)
Working Paper: The Two Faces of Worker Specialization (2025)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:18320

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP18320

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CEPR ().