Skill, Productivity, and Wages: Direct Evidence from a Temporary Help Agency
利用临时工中介机构的独特数据，研究发现技能提升带来的生产率增长远大于工资增长，工资压缩解释了5年工龄内平均40%生产率增长的一半。
Firms frequently provide general skill training for workers. Theories propose that labor market frictions entail wage compression, generate larger productivity gains than wage growth to skill acquisition, and motivate a firm to offer general skill training, but few studies directly test them. We use unusually rich data from a temporary help service firm that records both workers’ wages and their productivity as measured by the fees charged to client firms. We find that skill acquired through training and learning by doing increases productivity more than wages, with such wage compression accounting for half of the average 40% productivity growth over 5 years of tenure.