Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics
Research Papers in Economics,
Stockholm University, Department of Economics
No 2015:4: Firms and skills: the evolution of worker sorting
Christina Håkanson (), Erik Lindqvist () and Jonas Vlachos ()
Additional contact information
Christina Håkanson: Sveriges Riksbank, Postal: 103 37 Stockholm, Sweden
Erik Lindqvist: Stockholm School of Economics, and IFN., Postal: Department of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics, S-113 63 Stockholm, Sweden
Jonas Vlachos: Stockholm University and IFN., Postal: Department of Economics, Stockholm University, S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
Abstract: We document a significant increase in the sorting of workers by cognitive and non- cognitive skills across Swedish firms between 1986 and 2008. The weight of the evidence suggests that the increase in sorting is due to stronger complementarities between worker skills and technology. In particular, a large fraction of the increase can be explained by the expansion of the ICT sector and a reallocation of engineers across firms. We also find evidence of increasing assortative matching, in the sense that workers who are particularly skilled in their respective educational groups are more likely to work in the same firms. Changes in sorting pattens and skill gradients can account for a about half of the increase in between-firm wage dispersion.
Keywords: Skill sorting; skilled-biased technological change; outsourcing; globalization; cognitive skills; non-cognitive skills; personality; employer-employee matched data.
81 pages, May 26, 2015
Full text files
wp15_04.pdf
Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Anne Jensen ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ().
RePEc:hhs:sunrpe:2015_0004This page generated on 2024-09-13 22:17:19.