Ability and Employer Learning: Evidence from the Economist Labor Market / Paul Oyer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Oyer, Paul.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w12989.

NBER working paper series no. w12989

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Ability and Employer Learning

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2007.

Summary:

I study the human capital development and firm-worker matching processes for PhD economists. This group is useful for this purpose because the types of jobs they hold can be easily categorized and they have an observable productivity measure (that is, publications.) I derive a two-period model to motivate an empirical analysis of economist job matching upon graduation, matching ten years later, and productivity in the first ten years. I show that matching to a higher ranked institution affects productivity. I present evidence that employers improve their estimates of economists' ability early in their career in a way that determines longer-term job placement. I also find that the initial placement of economists to institutions does not show much evidence of systematic misallocation along observable characteristics.

Notes:

Print version record

March 2007.