The Link between Ability and Specialization: An Explanation for Observed Correlations between Wages and Mobility Rates
用一个简单的培训模型解释为何高工资岗位的工人流动率更低，认为能力强的工人更倾向于选择专业化岗位，从而面临更高的流动成本。基于青年纵向调查数据验证了模型的多个推论，并为行业间工资差异文献提供了新解读。
Wage levels and turnover rates are negatively correlated across types of employment, and this fact is often interpreted as evidence that high-wage jobs are rationed. A simple training model illustrates, however, that this correlation may arise because able workers have an incentive to choose highly specialized jobs. In any job, the most able workers possess the most valuable stocks of specific skills and therefore face the highest mobility costs. Thus, able workers may have a comparative advantage in specialized employments. Data from the national Longitudinal Survey of Youth provide an opportunity to evaluate the merits of the training model developed here. Data on worker training and mobility provide support for several implications of the model. The model also provides new ways to interpret existing results in the literature on interindustry wage differentials.