Occupational mobility in Europe: Extent, determinants and consequences

Arbeitspapier

We examine occupational mobility and its link to wage mobility across a large number of EU countries using worker-level micro data. In doing so, we document the extent, the individual-level determinants and the consequences of occupational mobility in terms of wage outcomes and structural change across the EU. In addition, we identify potential explanations for the observed cross-country variation. Our results show that on average, 3% of European workers change their occupation per year, and that the extent of occupational mobility differs strongly by country. Individual characteristics play an important role for person-specific occupational mobility, but have little explanatory power for differences between countries. Occupational mobility is strongly associated with earnings mobility, and occupation movers are more likely than job movers to experience a downward rather than an upward earnings transition; by contrast, changing occupation voluntarily is more often followed by an upward wage transition. As opposed to composition effects, labour-market institutions, especially employment protection legislation, seem to play an important role for explaining crosscountry differences in occupational mobility.

Object Details

• ISBN: 978-3-86788-852-3
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Ruhr Economic Papers ; No. 732

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion ; Labor Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs ; Comparative Studies of Particular Economies
• Subject: occupational mobility ; job mobility ; wage mobility ; European labour markets ; EU-SILC ; cross-country study

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Bachmann, Ronald ; Bechara, Peggy ; Vonnahme, Christina
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung
• (where): Essen
• (when): 2017

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.4419/86788852
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/173208
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET