Volume 7, Number 3 (Summer) 1972
Rosen, Sherwin. 1972. "Learning and Experience in the Labor Market." Journal of Human Resources 7(3):326-342.
This paper models the role of the labor market in the transmission and acquisition of skills and knowledge, based on the hypothesis that individuals learn from their working experiences. The problem is cast in terms of an implicit market for learning opportunities that is dual to the market for jobs. Optimum choices in this setting have implications for the evolution of earnings and occupational patterns over the workers' lifetimes and provide the basis for a theory of occupational mobility. Several implications of the model, including those for occupational discrimination against minorities, are also discussed.
The author is Professor of Economics, University of Rochester, and is also affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research. I have benefited from discussions with James W. Friedman at an early stage of this research, and from comments by Glen Cain on an initial draft. Financial assistance from the Carnegie Commissions on Higher Education and the Office of Economic Opportunity to the National Bureau of Economic Research is gratefully acknowledged.
© 2003 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X