Human Capital and Unemployment Dynamics: Why More Educated Workers Enjoy Greater Employment Stability

Isabel Cairo and Tomaz Cajner

No 2014-09, Finance and Economics Discussion Series from Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.)

Abstract: Why do more educated workers experience lower unemployment rates and lower employment volatility? A closer look at the data reveals that these workers have similar job finding rates, but much lower and less volatile separation rates than their less educated peers. We argue that on-the-job training, being complementary to formal education, is the reason for this pattern. Using a search and matching model with endogenous separations, we show that investments in match-specific human capital reduce the outside option of workers, implying less incentives to separate. The model generates unemployment dynamics that are quantitatively consistent with the cross-sectional empirical patterns.

Keywords: Unemployment; education; on-the-job training; specific human capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 E32 J24 J64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 60
Date: 2014-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge, nep-hrm and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Human Capital and Unemployment Dynamics: Why More Educated Workers Enjoy Greater Employment Stability (2018)
Working Paper: Human Capital and Unemployment Dynamics: Why More Educated Workers Enjoy Greater Employment Stability (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2014-09

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