Discussion paper

DP10130 Sorting Between and Within Industries: A Testable Model of Assortative Matching

We test for sorting of workers between and within industrial sectors in a directed search model with coordination frictions. We fit the model to sector-specific vacancy and output data along with publicly-available statistics that characterize the distribution of worker and employer wage heterogeneity across sectors. Our empirical method is general and can be applied to a broad class of assignment models. The results indicate that industries are the loci of sorting - more productive workers are employed in more productive industries. The evidence confirms assortative matching can be present even when worker and employer components of wage heterogeneity are weakly correlated.

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Citation

Kramarz, F, J Abowd and I Schmutte (2014), ‘DP10130 Sorting Between and Within Industries: A Testable Model of Assortative Matching‘, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 10130. CEPR Press, Paris & London. https://cepr.org/publications/dp10130