10.12.2019; Vortragsreihe
Annekatrin Niebuhr (CAU Kiel) - The Location of Human Capital Accumulation – Learning by Working in Large Regions or in Large Firms
Abstract:
This paper analyses where the human capital accumulation of workers takes primarily place: within establishments or outside, elsewhere in the local labour market. It distinguishes learning effects arising at the regional level from those arising at the establishment level. Using administrative data for Germany from the Integrated Employment Biographies (IEB) of the IAB, wages of newly established employment relationships are analysed. Our results indicate that these entry wages are significantly higher the larger the local labour markets and the larger the establishments were in which work experience previously was gathered. This suggests that both – working in big cities and in large establishments – gives rise to learning and thereby to regional wage disparities since large establishments are overrepresented in urban labour markets.