Multidimensional Skill Specialization and Mismatch Over the Lifecycle

Jacob Loree

No 892, 2019 Meeting Papers from Society for Economic Dynamics

Abstract: In this paper, I investigate multidimensional skill mismatch and specialization over the lifecycle. I first present a model of labour choice with heterogeneous worker skills and occupational skill intensities that has 2 key features. Workers accumulate skill over time and frictions inhibit the perfect assignment of workers to occupations. The model yields four implications: (1) some workers will start in occupations for which they are not well suited; (2) due to skill accumulation, some workers who began mismatched will voluntarily continue to use the skill associated with the mismatched occupation, instead of their initial comparative advantage ability; (3) workers who switch occupations that differ in skill intensity hold skill portfolios that are more diversified than those who specialize; (4) there is a larger incidence of workers who switch from mismatched occupations to better matches than vice versa. I then test these implications using U.S. longitudinal data. The data shows the four predictions are statistically valid. For example, workers are likely to specialize within one skill - even when that skill is not a worker's initial comparative advantage. Both the model and data demonstrate the severity of mismatch diminishes over the lifecycle, due to occupation switching and skill accumulation

Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://red-files-public.s3.amazonaws.com/meetpapers/2019/paper_892.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:red:sed019:892

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 2019 Meeting Papers from Society for Economic Dynamics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christian Zimmermann ().