TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Cerina, Fabio
AU  - Dienesch, Elisa
AU  - Monge-Naranjo, Alex
AU  - Moro, Alessio
        TI  - The Anatomy of Polarization: Evidence from Worker Flows
        PY  - 2026/Jul/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18826
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18826
        AB  - 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.
        KW  - labor market polarization
KW  - worker flows
KW  - occupational mobility
KW  - routine-biased technological change
KW  - longitudinal data
        ER  -