This paper tackles some issues in personnel economics using the career profiles of British naval officers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. We ask how promotions, payouts, positions, and peers affect worker retention. Random variation in task assignments and job promotions allows us...

We estimate how exogenous worker exits affect firms' demand for incumbent workers and new hires. Drawing on administrative data from Germany, we analyze 34,000 unexpected worker deaths, which, on average, raise the remaining workers' wages and retention probabilities. The average effect masks...

The paper introduces a new measure of educational mismatch at the firm level, constructed by merging firm and individual data at the sector-firm size-year level. This measure captures both the intensity of mismatch and its type - whether overeducation, undereducation, or a mix of the two. We...

Most firms rely on subjective evaluations by supervisors to assess their employees' performance. This article discusses the implementation of such appraisal processes, exploring the use of multiple research methods such as the analysis of personnel records, survey data, and lab and field...

We develop a rational choice model of sexual exchange that unifies marriage and paid sex, explaining two key facts: the gendered segregation of sex markets and the decline in sexual activity and fertility. Individuals choose whether to engage in paid or unpaid sex based on income, human capital,...

Using 182 estimates from 140 studies in 55 countries, this paper compares ordinary least squares (OLS) and instrumental variables (IV) estimates of the private returns to schooling. IV returns average 9.7 percent - 38 percent higher than OLS - and exceed OLS in nearly 80 percent of cases, with...

Epigenetics is the study of how people's behavior and environments influence the way their genes are expressed, even though their DNA sequence is itself unchanged. By aggregating age-related epigenetic markers, epigenetic "clocks" have become the leading tool for studying biological aging. We...

This paper reconsiders how labor market competition shapes skill development - integrating the perspectives of both firms and workers. We show that competition serves as a catalyst for learning. It creates outside opportunities which incentivize workers to invest in their own skills, and it...

The empirical literature on employer learning assumes that employers learn about unobserved ability differences across workers as they spend time in the labor market. This article describes testable implications that arise from this basic hypothesis and how they have been used to quantify the...

Brain drain BD, human capital h, and inequality's institutional impact is examined in a model where a rent-seeking elite taxes residents and voicing affects the likelihood of regime change. We find that BD and h's impact on institutional quality (Q) are as follows: i) Q is a U-shaped function of...