Inter-industry labor reallocation and task distance

Ayako Kondo and Saori Naganuma

Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, 2015, vol. 38, issue C, 127-147

Abstract: This paper investigates factors preventing inter-industry labor reallocation by estimating the determinants of inter-industry worker flow and earnings change after a job change. We find that the difference in required tasks is an important reason for earnings reduction after an inter-industry job change, and thus, workers may hesitate to move to industries requiring a different set of tasks for fear of losing the wage premium acquired by task-specific human capital. In addition, more workers switch to industries with which their previous industry had larger transactions, although it affects earnings changes only marginally. On the other hand, industry performance does not affect labor inflow or wage changes significantly for inter-industry job changes. Young men, less educated women, and those quitting previous jobs for family or health reasons are more likely to move to industries requiring a different set of tasks, and young individuals who lost their jobs involuntarily are less likely to do so. Individuals more likely to move are not necessarily those whose earnings loss associated with the move is small: earning losses associated with task distance are relatively small among younger and less educated workers and are uncorrelated with the reasons for quitting the previous job.

Keywords: Inter-industry labor mobility; Task specific human capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J21 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Inter-industry labor reallocation and task distance (2015)
Working Paper: Inter-industry labor reallocation and task distance (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jjieco:v:38:y:2015:i:c:p:127-147

DOI: 10.1016/j.jjie.2015.08.001

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