Current Research at ISERP
Search, Firms, and Human Capital: Job Loss and the Shaping of Young Workers' Careers
by Till Von Wachter (International and Public Affairs)
The first few years in the labor market are crucial in the development of a worker's career. However, this is the stage when workers have the highest rate of job loss and lost most in recessions. In fact, current estimates for the United States show that an early job loss has large and persistent negative consequences for wages of both young men and women. Similarly, it appears that young American workers suffer long-term negative consequences from entering the labor market in a recession. These findings together imply that young workers are potentially at high risk of long-term adverse consequences from shocks unrelated to their own characteristics or choices in a crucial phase of their careers.
The goals of this project are: (1) to quantify the degree of persistence of early labor market experiences free from confounding factors due to sorting and selection; (2) to provide a detailed analysis of the channels through which persistent wage losses occur, with particular emphasis on job mobility, job attachment, and firm characteristics; and (3) to use this information to assess the relative importance of job mobility and human capital accumulation in young worker's careers.
See Also
- Research grant: Search, Firms, and Human Capital: Job Loss and the Shaping of Young Workers' Careers
- Seed grant: Outsourcing, Deindustrialization, and Technological Change: The Effect of Changes in Labor Demand on Retirement Outcomes of Older Workers
Funded by National Science Foundation »
