The allocation of talent over the business cycle and its effect on sectoral productivity

Michael J. Boehm and Martin Watzinger

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: It is well documented that graduates enter different occupations in recessions than in booms. In this article, we examine the impact of this reallocation for long-term productivity and output across sectors. We develop a model in which talent flows to stable sectors in recessions and to cyclical sectors in booms. We find evidence for the predicted change in productivity caused by the business cycle in a setting where output can be readily measured: economists starting or graduating from their PhD in a recession are significantly more productive over the long term than economists starting or graduating in a boom.

Keywords: talent allocation; sectoral productivity; business cycle; roy model; PhD economists (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E32 I23 J22 J23 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 55 pages
Date: 2012-05-06
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/121927/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The Allocation of Talent over the Business Cycle and its Effect on Sectoral Productivity (2012)
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:ehl:lserod:121927

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().