Occupational and regional mobility as substitutes. A new approach to understanding job changes and wage inequality

"Job mobility offers opportunities for workers to obtain wage increases, but returns to job changes differ considerably. We argue that parts of this inequality result from a trade-off between occupational and regional mobility. Both mobility types offer alternative strategies to improve one...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Reichelt, Malte, Abraham, Martin
Institution:ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
Format: TEXT
Language:English
Published: Nürnberg 2015
IAB
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19113539124919317119-occupational-and-regional-mobi.htm
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author Reichelt, Malte
Abraham, Martin
author_facet Reichelt, Malte
Abraham, Martin
collection Library items
description "Job mobility offers opportunities for workers to obtain wage increases, but returns to job changes differ considerably. We argue that parts of this inequality result from a trade-off between occupational and regional mobility. Both mobility types offer alternative strategies to improve one's labor market position; however, they each contain unique restrictions. High costs for regional mobility can thus evoke occupation changes, even though the resulting human capital devaluation leads to lower wage increases. We use linked retrospective life-course data for Germany (ALWA-ADIAB) and apply competing risks models to show that restrictions on one type of mobility drive individuals toward the other. Using fixed-effects regressions, we show that occupational mobility leads to lower wage increases compared to regional mobility. We conclude that the trade-off between occupational and regional mobility explains part of the differential returns to job mobility and contributes to wage inequality. We expect these mechanisms to become more pronounced in the future as technological and institutional changes alter job requirements and thereby mobility incentives."
format TEXT
geographic Germany
id 19113539124919317119_31cfdcf32866411081a3df55df89a2e9
institution ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
is_hierarchy_id 19113539124919317119_31cfdcf32866411081a3df55df89a2e9
is_hierarchy_title Occupational and regional mobility as substitutes. A new approach to understanding job changes and wage inequality
language English
physical 27 p.
Digital
publishDate 2015
publisher Nürnberg
IAB
spellingShingle Reichelt, Malte
Abraham, Martin
labour mobility
occupational change
regional level
wage increase
Occupational and regional mobility as substitutes. A new approach to understanding job changes and wage inequality
thumbnail https://www.labourline.org/Image_prev.jpg?Archive=108243592642
title Occupational and regional mobility as substitutes. A new approach to understanding job changes and wage inequality
topic labour mobility
occupational change
regional level
wage increase
url https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19113539124919317119-occupational-and-regional-mobi.htm