Dream Jobs

74 Pages Posted: 28 Jul 2020 Last revised: 4 Feb 2022

See all articles by Giordano Mion

Giordano Mion

University of Sussex - Department of Economics; London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Centre for Economic Performance (CEP); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Luca David Opromolla

Bank of Portugal; CEPR; UECE - Research Unit on Complexity in Economics

Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano

Bocconi University - Department of Economics and Paolo Baffi Centre on Central Banking and Financial Regulation

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: July 2020

Abstract

Understanding why certain jobs are 'better' than others and what implications they have for a worker's career is clearly an important but still relatively unexplored question. We provide both a theoretical framework and a number of empirical results that help distinguishing 'good' from 'bad' jobs in terms of their impact on a worker's lifetime wage income profile through wage jumps occurring upon changing job ('static effects') or through increases in the wage growth rate ('dynamic effects'). We find that the distinction between internationally active firms and domestic firms is a meaningful empirical dividing line between employers providing 'good' and 'bad' jobs. First, in internationally active firms the experience-wage profile is much steeper than in domestic firms, especially for managers as opposed to blue-collar workers. Second, the higher lifetime wage income for managers in internationally active firms relies on the stronger accumulation of experience that these firms allow for and on the (almost) perfect portability of the accumulated dynamic wage gains to other firms. Static effects are instead much more important for blue-collar workers. Finally, the distinction between internationally active and domestic firms is relevant also at a more aggregate level to explain cross-sectional differences in wages among workers and spatial differences in average wages across regions within a country.

Keywords: Good Jobs, International Experience, Managers, sorting, wage growth, Wage Premium

JEL Classification: F16, J30, J62, M12

Suggested Citation

Mion, Giordano and Opromolla, Luca David and Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P., Dream Jobs (July 2020). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP15027, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3650142

Giordano Mion (Contact Author)

University of Sussex - Department of Economics ( email )

Falmer, Brighton BN1 9SL
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://sites.google.com/site/giordanomionhp/

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) ( email )

Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) ( email )

London
United Kingdom

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) ( email )

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

Luca David Opromolla

Bank of Portugal ( email )

Rua Francisco Ribeiro 2
Lisbon, 1150-165
Portugal

CEPR ( email )

London
United Kingdom

UECE - Research Unit on Complexity in Economics ( email )

ISEG/UTL Rua Miguel Lupi 20
Lisboa, 1249-078
Portugal

Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano

Bocconi University - Department of Economics and Paolo Baffi Centre on Central Banking and Financial Regulation ( email )

Via Gobbi 5
Milan, 20136
Italy

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