Occupational Choice and the Effects of Skill Supply on Relative Wages.

摘要

It is shown that an economy where agents with one dimensional skill choose among occupations as intermediate complementary inputs with dierent learning costs has an equilibrium hierarchy from the lowest cost/skill/wage occupations to the highest which agents will cascade along away from the skill level of new entrants. This can explain why dierently/similarly skilled agents act like comple- ments/substitutes. The distinction between lifetime wages including the learning cost and current wages implies a more elastic eect of immigration, but a more inelastic eect of the minimum wage. These conclusions don.t rely on the typical assumptions of scale, preferences, or comparative advantage.