Wage growth and occupational mobility in Spain: Movers versus Stayers

Abstract

The role of labour mobility as a mechanism for improving the productivity and the allocative efficiency of workers has been a main topic in economics for last years. A particular issue that has received considerable interest for the economics research has been the effects of job mobility on the workers’ wage growth. In this context, this paper attempts to shed knowledge for the Spanish case about the relationships between job mobility status, occupational career and wage growth. In particular, it is verified whether the type of job-to-job mobility (voluntary or involuntary) has some influence on the occupational mobility and whether the type of occupational change has some effect on wage growth for both movers and stayers. The data used come from the Living Condition Survey (INE, 2005-2010), and panel data methodology is applied to estimate the models specified for the occupational mobility and the wage growth.