%0 Report
        %A Cerina, Fabio
%A Dienesch, Elisa
%A Monge-Naranjo, Alex
%A Moro, Alessio
        %T The Anatomy of Polarization: Evidence from Worker Flows
        %D 2026
        %8 2026 Jul
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 18826
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18826
        %X Using a French administrative panel following workers over 1984-2021, we quantify how worker flows account for employment polarization. We trace job-to-job flows across manual, routine, and abstract occupations, and flows between employment and non-employment. Polarization emerges after 1994 mostly through a shift in the latter: a collapse in entry into routine jobs, concentrated in routine-cognitive occupations. Job-to-job upgrading from routine to abstract remains large and stable, with non-college workers accounting for 76% of net flows. Manual employment grows mainly by absorbing entrants. Polarization reflects sorting at entry and re-entry rather than incumbent displacement, motivating life-cycle models incorporating both margins.
        %K labor market polarization
%K worker flows
%K occupational mobility
%K routine-biased technological change
%K longitudinal data