By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.
How worker productivity evolves with tenure and experience shapes life-cycle earnings
and losses from job separation. Yet, worker-level productivity is hard to identify from
observational data. This paper introduces a firm survey designed to separate effects
of on-the-job tenure from sector-specific experience on the trajectory of on-the-job
productivity. Several findings emerge. (i) On-the-job productivity growth initially
exceeds wage growth, consistent with wages not being allocative period-by-period. (ii)
Previous sector-specific experience reduces on-the-job tenure needed, though not by
one-to-one, to reach a maximal productivity. (iii) There is substantial heterogeneity
across jobs in the extent that previous sector-specific experience reduces tenure needed.
