Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/236504 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 14473
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We present evidence consistent with large disparities across firms in the on-the-job learning their young employees experience, using administrative datasets from Brazil and Italy. We categorize firms into discrete "classes" using a clustering methodology which groups together firms with similar distributions of unexplained earnings growth. Equipped with this categorization of firms-which our conceptual framework interprets as skill-learning classes-we document three main results. First, Mincerian returns to experience vary substantially across experiences acquired in different firm classes, and the magnitude of this heterogeneity is associated with significant shifts across the distribution of early-career wage growth. Second, past experience at firms with better on-the-job learning is associated with subsequent jobs featuring greater non-routine task content. Third, firms' observable characteristics only mildly predict on-the-job learning opportunities. Our findings hold among involuntarily displaced workers who have no seniority at their new jobs, which is consistent with a portable skills interpretation.
Subjects: 
human capital
on-the-job learning
firms
JEL: 
J24
J31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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