The theory of career mobility (Sicherman and Galor, Journal of Political Economy, 98(1), 169-92, 1990) claims that wage penalties for overeducated workers are compensated by better promotion prospects. Sicherman (Journal of Labour Economics, 9(2), 101-22, 1991) was able to confirm this theory in...

"It is well known that changes to another branch of industry or another job can be either voluntary, when workers seek better employment opportunities, or involuntary, when they take on another job after being made redundant. As the determinants and costs of these two types of mobility differ,...

This paper studies signs and reasons of decline of job stability in West Germany. Using data from the longitudinal German Socio-Economic Panel 1984-1997 (about to be extended until 1999), we look at two measures for job stability. Based on repeated cross sectional data we first show that medium...

Recent discussion of fixed-term contracts tends to ignore the considerable variation in the quality of these jobs and the wages associated with them (e.g. Booth et al., 2002). In this paper the authors develop the concept of a “two-tier” labour market for fixed-term contracts in Germany and...

The mobility effect of general and specific training is a key issue in the debate on the design of educational systems. Using data from two retrospective life-history surveys, we compare general school-based vocational training and specific apprenticeship training with regard to inter-firm,...

The analysis deals with the influence of exporting on the demand for workers with different skill levels. Previous literature suggests that this includes two major topics. First, productivity of exporting firms may increase due to learning facts after entering international markets and/or be...

"In this paper we analyse the health effects of fixed-term contract status for men and women in West-Germany and Spain using panel data. This paper asks whether changes in the employment relationship, as a result of the liberalisation of employment law, have altered the positive health effects...

The role of mobility is central to the debate on reducing unemployment. A further question is to what extent a lack of mobility enforces regional disparities. Using a micro data set containing information about two cohorts we analyse the impact of regional unemployment at district level to...