TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Kambourov, Gueorgui
AU  - Manovskii, Iourii
        TI  - Occupational Mobility and Wage Inequality
        PY  - 2004/Jun/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 1189
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp1189
        AB  - In this study we argue that wage inequality and occupational mobility are intimately related.
We are motivated by our empirical findings that human capital is occupation-specific and that
the fraction of workers switching occupations in the United States was as high as 16% a year
in the early 1970s and had increased to 19% by the early 1990s. We develop a general
equilibrium model with occupation-specific human capital and heterogeneous experience
levels within occupations. We argue that the increase in occupational mobility was due to the
increase in the variability of productivity shocks to occupations. The model, calibrated to
match the increase in occupational mobility, accounts for over 90% of the increase in wage
inequality over the period. A distinguishing feature of the theory is that it accounts for
changes in within-group wage inequality and the increase in the variability of transitory
earnings.
        KW  - within-group inequality
KW  - wage inequality
KW  - occupational mobility
KW  - human capital
KW  - sectoral reallocation
        ER  -