Productivity Growth and Workers’ Job Transitions

Evidence from Census Microdata

Bibliographic Data

ID9714397
AuthorsElías Albagli (Banco Central de Chile), Mario Canales (University of California, Los Angeles), Chad Syverson (0009-0007-7504-7283, University of Chicago Booth School of Management & NBER), Matías Tapia (Banco Central de Chile), Matı́as Tapia (Banco Central de Chile), Juan Wlasiuk (Banco Central de Chile), Juan Marcos Wlasiuk (0000-0002-3138-9106, Banco Central de Chile)
Year2024
Volume135
Issue666
Pages405-429
Publication date2024-12-24
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Economic Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-0133 • E-ISSN: 1468-0297
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/ej/ueae081
OpenAlexW4402627383
LanguageEN
References cited30

We use administrative data for Chile to provide novel insights on the relationship between job transitions and productivity differentials and quantify how different groups contribute to aggregate reallocation. While on average workers move to more productive firms, almost half of transitions are ‘down the productivity ladder’. Reallocation gains are mostly explained by a narrow subset of transitions: young, high-skilled workers generate the lion’s share of aggregate productivity gains. Workers with high turnover contribute proportionally the least. Therefore, while job reallocation yields a net benefit, it hides massive and heterogeneous gross flows, with many appearing to add little to aggregate efficiency

Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental health · Labour economics · Microdata (statistics · Productivity · Firm Innovation and Growth · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth · Labor market dynamics and wage inequality · Medicine

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