Presentation on spatial differences in the accumulation of work experience

From September 24 to 26, the 16th Geoffrey J.D. Hewings Workshop in Regional Economics took place at the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO). Jan Cornelius Peters presented an ongoing study conducted together with Annekatrin Niebuhr and Duncan Roth (both from the Institute for Employment Research, IAB).

The study examines how the ongoing structural transformation since 1975 has affected spatial differences in the accumulation of valuable work experience and individual wage growth over the life course. Across the entire observation period, employees tend to receive a smaller wage premium for work experience when it is acquired in rural rather than in highly urbanized regions. This drawback of rural areas—and its changes over time—are linked to the fact that workers in rural regions are employed in different types of jobs than those in densely populated areas. Jobs that offer a high wage premium for accumulated experience are less common in rural regions. Moreover, wage returns to certain types of experience have changed over time, which has also contributed to temporal variation in the (relative) premium for work experience gained in rural areas. However, no clear long-term trend over the past 50 years can be observed.

The presented analysis is part of the project “Economic effects of the spatially uneven distribution of workers as well as firms”.

Contact: Dr. Jan Cornelius Peters