Worker Reallocation across Occupations in Western Germany

Arbeitspapier

This paper analyzes the determinants of annual worker reallocation across disaggregated occupations in western Germany for the period 1985-2003. Employing data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, the pattern of average occupational mobility is documented. Worker reallocation is found to be strongly procyclical. Its determinants at the individual level are then investigated while controlling for unobserved worker heterogeneity. A dynamic probit fixed effects model is estimated to obtain coefficients and marginal effects. The incidental parameter bias is reduced by the method proposed in Hahn and Kuersteiner (2004). An interesting finding is that workers changing occupation are about 8 to 9 percent less inclined to experience occupational mobility in the subsequent year than workers who do not change. Except for workers with only compulsory education, the impact of age on the probability of occupational change is declining in the level of education. The unemployment rate has a negative effect on the probability of occupational changes, especially for female foreigners.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research ; No. 319

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Professional Labor Markets; Occupational Licensing ; Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion ; Single Equation Models; Single Variables: Panel Data Models; Spatio-temporal Models ; Single Equation Models; Single Variables: Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions; Probabilities ; Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Microeconomic Data; Data Access
• Subject: Dynamic binary choice models ; fixed effects ; incidental parameter bias ; occupational mobility ; Panel data ; Arbeitsmobilität ; Erwerbsverlauf ; Konjunktur ; Schätzung ; Deutschland

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Isaoglu, Aysen
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
• (where): Berlin
• (when): 2010

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/150864
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET