SMU SOE Seminar Series (November 25, 2024): Knowledge Spillovers, Competition, and Individual Careers

TOPIC:

ABSTRACT

Exposure to better peers at work can improve career prospects because of knowledge  spillover. However, it can also harm career prospects if workers compete for career opportunities. We disentangle these two effects by focusing on unskilled labor market entrants and dividing their colleagues in the same occupation into those they are likely and unlikely to compete with. We find strong evidence for persistent knowledge spillover effects but detect counteracting competition effects of similar magnitude. Both knowledge spillover and competition effects are larger for men than women.

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