The Importance of Labour Mobility for Spillovers across Industries

Arbeitspapier

This paper addresses the link between productivity and labour mobility. The hypothesis tested in the paper is that technology is transmitted across industries through the movement of skilled workers embodying human capital. The embodied knowledge is then diffused within the new environment creating spillovers and leading to productivity improvements. A theoretical framework is presented wherein productivity growth is modelled through knowledge acquisition with respect to labour mobility. The empirical estimates confirm the existence of positive cross-sectoral knowledge spillovers and indicate that labour mobility has beneficial effects on industry productivity. Due to the fact that labour mobility is closely linked to input-output relations this finding provides evidence suggesting that part of the estimated productivity effects of domestic rent spillovers are in fact due to knowledge spillovers resulting from labour mobility.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: wiiw Working Paper ; No. 58

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers: General ; Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
• Subject: knowledge spillovers ; labour mobility ; productivity ; manufacturing ; industry ; human capital ; growth

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Foster-McGregor, Neil ; Pöschl, Johannes
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw)
• (where): Vienna
• (when): 2009

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/203923
• Last update: 03.01.2025, 10:43 AM CET