The Timing of Careers and Human Capital Depreciation

Astrid Kunze

No 509, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper explores the short and long run effects of career interruptions on wages for young skilled workers in West Germany. The analysis distinguishes four types of career interruptions: unemployment, parental leave for female workers, national service for male workers and other non-work spells. We adopt the human capital model by Mincer and Polachek (1974) with homogenous human capital and test whether net depreciation is equal across types of employment interruptions, and equal in the short and in the long run. The main findings are that timing effects seem important and net depreciation differs across types of interruptions.

Keywords: human capital depreciation; wage determination; unemployment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J3 J7 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2002-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (34)

Published - published as 'Types of absence from work and wages of young German workers with apprenticeship training' in: Journal for Labour Market Research, 2017, 51 (5), 1-24

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