Occupational Specificity: A new Measurement Based on Training Curricula and its Effect on Labor Market Outcomes

Christian Eggenberger, Miriam Rinawi and Uschi Backes-Gellner
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Miriam Rinawi: Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Miriam Koomen

No 106, Economics of Education Working Paper Series from University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW)

Abstract: This paper proposes a new measurement for the specificity of occupations based on a content analysis of training curricula that we link to labor market demands. We apply Lazear’s (2009) skill weights approach and test predictions on labor market outcomes derived from his theory. We find clear evidence of a trade-off between earning higher returns with more specific training and higher occupational mobility with less specific training. Our measure improves the micro-foundation of human capital specificity and provides an evidence-based approach to evaluate the specificity of training curricula.

Keywords: vocational education and training; occupational mobility; human capital specificity; training curricula (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 J30 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2015-02, Revised 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Published in Labour Economics, April 2018, pages 97-107

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http://repec.business.uzh.ch/RePEc/iso/leadinghouse/0106_lhwpaper.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Occupational specificity: A new measurement based on training curricula and its effect on labor market outcomes (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iso:educat:0106

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