This paper provides a simple theoretical framework based on a new type of human capital introduced by Gibbons and Waldman (2004), called task-specific training, to understand job design. Mainly, in the presence of task-specific training, promotions might result ex-post in the underutilization of...

In this paper we develop a frictionless labor market model in which a firm invests in specific and general training that is neither complement nor substitute to specific training, while the worker invests only in specific training. We use this simple model to show that, contrary to Becker's...