Firm Heterogeneity in Skill Returns

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Boehm, Michael J.; Esmkhani, Khalil; Gallipoli, Giovanni
• 署名单位: Dortmund University of Technology; Simon Fraser University; University of British Columbia
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/729103
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: high wage workers; LABOR; models

摘要

We quantify firm heterogeneity in skill returns and present direct evidence of worker-firm complementarities. Within a model of firms' demand for cognitive and noncognitive attributes, we show that identification depends on the availability of skill measures. Linking administrative data to test scores, we document worker sorting and convex earnings-skill relationships. We find that (1) both skills' returns vary substantially across employers and correlate weakly within firms; (2) workers with large endowments of a skill populate firms with higher returns to it, and sorting intensifies with the cross-sectional dispersion of returns; and (3) complementarities and sorting significantly influence the earnings distribution.