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Title: Fewer but Better: The Decline in Job Mobility and the Information Channel

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2017

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Abstract: Employer-to-employer (E-E) transitions have declined in the United States during the last 20 years from a monthly rate of 2.7 percent in 1996 to 1.7 percent in 2016. I study the factors behind this decline. I document that most of the decrease in E-E transitions is accounted for by declines in matches with less than 12 months of job tenure. I attribute this decline to an increase in information about the quality of job opportunities. I then develop a search model with heterogenous matches and on-the-job search with learning about match quality. I show that the information channel can be identified from the change in the wage growth of job switchers. I estimate my model and find that workers in recent years have substantially more information about matches before they are formed, turning jobs into inspection goods rather than experience goods. I find that this increase in information explains 50 to 60 percent of the decline in job mobility over the last two decades. ⇤

Url: https://econ.au.dk/fileadmin/user_upload/Conferences/YusufMercan.pdf

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Authors: Mercan, Yusuf A.

Publisher: UC Berkeley

Data Collections: IPUMS CPS

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure

Countries: United States