The Changing Demand for Skills: Evidence from the Transition

Simon Commander () and János Köllő ()
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Simon Commander: IE Business School, Altura Partners
János Köllő: Institute of Economics, Budapest

No 1073, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Transition has involved major job destruction and creation. This paper examines the skill content of these changes using a detailed three country firm survey. It shows that transition has exerted a strong bias against unskilled labour who have lost employment disproportionately. Moreover, job creation in new firms tends to be biased against workers with low educational attainments and skills. The skill content of blue collar work has also shifted upwards. Although there is variation across the sampled countries, these appear to be common features. They will have major longer run implications for the level and structure of employment and for inequality through the distribution of earnings.

Keywords: Hungary; transition; human capital; job reallocation; Romania; Russia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J21 J23 J63 P31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2004-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cis and nep-tra
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Published - published in: Economics of Transition, 2008, 16 (2), 199-221.

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