TY  - JOUR
AU  - Jovanovic,Boyan
AU  - Nyarko,Yaw
TI  - Stepping Stone Mobility
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 5651
PY  - 1996
Y2  - July 1996
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5651
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5651.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Boyan Jovanovic
New York University
Department of Economics
19 W. 4th Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY  10012
Tel: 212/998-8953
Fax: 212/995-4186
E-Mail: Boyan.Jovanovic@nyu.edu

Yaw Nyarko
Department of Economics
New York University
19 W. 4th Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10012
Tel: 212-998-8928;  yaw.nyarko@nyu.edu
E-Mail: yaw.nyarko@nyu.edu
AB  - People at the top of an occupational ladder earn more partly because they have spent time on lower rungs, where they have learned something.  But what precisely do they learn?  There are two contrasting views:  First, the Bandit model assumes that people are different, that experience reveals their characteristics, and that consequently an occupational switch can result.  Second, in our Stepping Stone  model, experience raises a worker's productivity on a given task and the acquired skill can in part be transferred to other occupations, and this prompts movement. Safe activities (where mistakes destroy less output) are a natural training ground.
ER  -