We analyze the causal influence of a positive reputation shock for a particular occupation on career choice. In the unpredictable event that a person from one's own country wins a (gold) medal in a particular occupation at the World Championship of Vocational Skills (WorldSkills), searches for appre…
This study analyses the impact of managers’ risk preferences on their training allocation decisions. We begin by providing nationally representative evidence that managers’ risk-aversion is negatively correlated with the likelihood that their firms engage in any worker training. Using a novel vignet…
We conducted a field experiment in France which shows that employers exhibit little preference when deciding whom to invite for job interviews: unemployed apprentices or vocational students, both of whom have earned the same diploma. By merging the results of this experiment with a search and matchi…
This paper develops a new approach to measuring human capital specificity, in the context of college majors, and estimates its labor market return over a worker's life cycle. To measure specificity, we propose a novel method grounded in human capital theory: a Gini coefficient of earnings premia for…
