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Author: Lee, Bum-Yoal
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Lee, Bum-Yoal
Worker Sorting in Different-Sized Employers: Selection and Placement Effects by Observed and Unobserved Heterogeneity
Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Oregon, 1997
Cohort(s): Young Men
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning
Keyword(s): Britain, British; British Household Panel Survey (BHPS); Cross-national Analysis; Income; Job Rewards; Job Skills; Labor Market Demographics; Labor Market Surveys; Transfers, Skill; Wage Differentials

This study extends the self-selection framework developed by Roy to analyze the match of workers between small and large employers by their characteristics. In particular, the theoretical analysis shows how differences in the skill- price distribution between small and large employers yield systematic worker sorting by both observed and unobserved characteristics. The possible sorting of workers by unobserved attributes provides an explanation for prior findings that workers with comparable observed attributes earn more in large employers, which is tested using data from both the National Longitudinal Survey of Young Men and the British Household Panel Survey. The empirical results confirm theoretical expectations that large employers pay a higher return to both observed and unobserved skill and that worker movement between different-sized employers reinforces the self-selection of better workers into large employers. Moreover, empirical comparisons of the wage changes for movers between different-sized employers show that an improved skill-price job match accounts for a significant portion of the wage gains of movers. Cross-country comparisons between the U.S. and the U.K. indicate a similar employer-size sorting process between the two countries, but also support prior evidence of greater labor-market responsiveness in the U.S. relative to Europe.
Bibliography Citation
Lee, Bum-Yoal. Worker Sorting in Different-Sized Employers: Selection and Placement Effects by Observed and Unobserved Heterogeneity. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Oregon, 1997.