Skill-Biased Technical Change is one of the most prominent explanations for the rise in wage inequality in the United States over the last decades. However, the explanation is challenged for several reasons. In this paper, I propose an alternative type of technical change, where new technologies...

Skill-Biased Technical Change is one of the most prominent explanations for the rise in wage inequality in the United States over the last decades. However, the explanation is challenged for several reasons. In this paper, I propose an alternative type of technical change, where new technologies...

I derive a measure of job mobility that reflects individuals ability to sort into the preferred jobs. Relying on the Survey of Income and Program Participation, I find that educational attainment tends to have a strong positive effect on internal (i.e., within firms) and external (i.e., between...

In the present paper, I develop an on-the-job search model in which workers face both frictional and structural impediments to sorting. There are two key model predictions. First, versatility enhances the worker’s ability to sort into the most productive firms since a mismatch between the job...

Skill-Biased Technical Change is one of the most prominent explanations for the rise in wage inequality in the United States over the last decades. However, the explanation is challenged for several reasons. In this paper, I propose an alternative type of technical change, where new technologies...

In this paper I illustrate how the diffusion across firms of a skill-neutral technology leads to a skill-biased impact on the economy. The model identifies (i) differences in inter-firm mobility between skill groups, (ii) productivity dispersion across firms within industries, and (iii)...

Motivated by the canonical (random) on-the-job search model, I measure a person’s ability to sort into preferred jobs by the risk ratio of job-to-job transitions to transitions into unemployment. I show that this measure possesses various desirable features. Making use of the Survey of Income...

In the present paper, I integrate frictional labor markets with on-the-job search into an otherwise standard heterogeneous firm model of intra-industry trade. Most importantly, I show that the returns to workers' inter-firm mobility are higher in a trade equilibrium than in autarky. Intuitively,...

I document the comovement of the skill premium with the differential employer size wage premium between high- and low-skill workers in U.S. manufacturing during the postwar era. For the baseline specification, i.e., establishments with at least 500 employees categorized as large employers and...

Various barriers may prevent people from entering a market. Will they participate in the market despite their inexperience once the barriers fall? I exploit the socalled German reunification experiment in order to assess the impact of removed market barriers on participation rates: While East...