Like father, like son: Occupational choice, intergenerational persistence and misallocation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lo Bello, Salvatore; Morchio, Iacopo
• 署名单位: European Central Bank; Bank of Italy; University of Bristol
• 刊物名称: QUANTITATIVE ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1759-7323
• DOI: 10.3982/QE1375
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 629-679
• 关键词: comparative advantage; labor productivity; mismatch; occupational mobility; social contacts

摘要

We develop a dynamic quantitative model of occupational choice and search frictions with multiple channels of intergenerational transmission (comparative advantage, social contacts, and preferences), and use it to decompose the occupational persistence observed in the UK. In the model, workers who choose their father's occupation find jobs faster and earn lower wages, which is consistent with patterns found in UK data. Quantitatively, parental networks account for 79% of total persistence. Shutting down parental networks or the transmission of preferences improves the allocation of workers, and thus yields welfare gains, while removing the transmission of comparative advantage generates welfare losses.