Stepping Stone Mobility

Boyan Jovanovic () and Yaw Nyarko

No 5651, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: People at the top of an occupational ladder earn more partly because they have spent time on lower rungs, where they have learned something. But what precisely do they learn? There are two contrasting views: First, the Bandit model assumes that people are different, that experience reveals their characteristics, and that consequently an occupational switch can result. Second, in our Stepping Stone model, experience raises a worker's productivity on a given task and the acquired skill can in part be transferred to other occupations, and this prompts movement. Safe activities (where mistakes destroy less output) are a natural training ground.

JEL-codes: J6 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1996-07
Note: PR
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Published as Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Volume 46, June 1997, pp. 289-325

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Related works:
Journal Article: Stepping-stone mobility (1997)
Working Paper: Stepping Stone Mobility (1996)
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