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Research ArticleArticles

Employer Learning and the “Importance” of Skills

Audrey Light and Andrew McGee
Journal of Human Resources, January 2015, 50 (1) 72-107; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.50.1.72
Audrey Light
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Andrew McGee
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Abstract

We ask whether employer learning in the wage-setting process depends on skill type and skill importance to productivity, using measures of seven premarket skills and data for each skill’s importance to occupation-specific productivity. Before incorporating importance measures, we find evidence of employer learning for each skill type, for college and high school graduates, and for blue-and white-collar workers, but no evidence that employer learning varies significantly across skill or worker type. When we allow parameters identifying employer learning and screening to vary by skill importance, we identify tradeoffs between learning and screening for some (but not all) skills.

  • Received March 2013.
  • Accepted January 2014.
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Journal of Human Resources: 50 (1)
Journal of Human Resources
Vol. 50, Issue 1
1 Jan 2015
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Employer Learning and the “Importance” of Skills
Audrey Light, Andrew McGee
Journal of Human Resources Jan 2015, 50 (1) 72-107; DOI: 10.3368/jhr.50.1.72

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Employer Learning and the “Importance” of Skills
Audrey Light, Andrew McGee
Journal of Human Resources Jan 2015, 50 (1) 72-107; DOI: 10.3368/jhr.50.1.72
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