Worker turnover at the firm level and crowding out of lower educated workers

Pieter A. Gautier*, Gerard J. Van den Berg, Jan C. Van Ours, Geert Ridder

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

38 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper investigates whether employers exploit cyclical downturns to improve the average skill level of their work force. We use a unique dataset that contains information on workers, jobs as well as firm characteristics. Our findings are that at each job level mainly lower educated workers leave during downturns. Furthermore, at each level of job complexity, workers with a higher education are not more productive than lower educated workers. We find no evidence that higher educated workers crowd out lower educated workers during recessions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)523-538
Number of pages16
JournalEuropean Economic Review
Volume46
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2002

Keywords

  • Business cycle
  • Education
  • Turnover
  • Unemployment
  • Wages

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