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Author: Kahn, Lisa B.

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1.	Kahn, Lisa B.
1.	Asymmetric Information between Employers Presented: New York, NY, Society of Labor Economists Annual Meeting, May 2008. Also: http://client.norc.org/jole/SOLEweb/8181.pdf Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: National Opinion Research Center - NORC Keyword(s): Firms; Learning, Asymmetric; Modeling; Workers Ability Employer learning about workers' abilities plays a key role in determining how workers sort into jobs and are compensated. This study explores whether learning is symmetric or asymmetric, i.e., whether potential employers have the same information about worker ability as the incumbent firm. I develop a model of asymmetric learning that nests the symmetric learning case and allows the degree of asymmetry to vary. I derive testable implications for the prevalence of asymmetric learning involving a new dependent variable: the variance in pay changes. Using the NLSY, I employ three distinct identification strategies to test different predictions of the model. I first test whether laid-off workers appear negatively selected compared to workers who lost jobs in plant closings, by comparing the variances in pay changes at their new jobs. I next exploit the fact that groups of workers differ in their variances in ability -- based on economic conditions at time of entry into a firm -- to show that incumbent wages track ability more closely than do outside firm wages. Finally, I provide additional evidence using the fact that learning about ability is more symmetric for some occupations than for others. All three cases favor the asymmetric learning model and suggest that the effect on wage setting is significant both statistically and in terms of economic magnitudes.
	Bibliography Citation Kahn, Lisa B. "Asymmetric Information between Employers." Presented: New York, NY, Society of Labor Economists Annual Meeting, May 2008.

2.	Kahn, Lisa B.
2.	Asymmetric Information between Employers IZA Discussion Paper No. 7147, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), January 2013. Also: http://ftp.iza.org/dp7147.pdf Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Firms; Learning, Asymmetric; Wages; Workers Ability Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Employer learning about workers' abilities plays a key role in determining how workers sort into jobs and are compensated. This study explores whether learning is symmetric or asymmetric, i.e., whether potential employers have the same information about worker ability as the incumbent firm. I develop a model of asymmetric learning that nests the symmetric learning case and allows the degree of asymmetry to vary, yielding testable implications for the prevalence of asymmetric learning. I then show how predictions in the model can be tested using compensation data. Using the NLSY, I test the model and find strong support for asymmetric information. I first exploit the fact that groups of workers differ in their variances in ability – based on economic conditions at time of entry into a firm – to show that incumbent wages track differences in ability distributions more closely than do outside firm wages. Second, I show that learning about ability is more symmetric for occupations that require more communication outside the firm. Finally, I show how to uncover the key parameter of interest in my model representing the degree to which information is asymmetric. My estimates imply that in one period, outside firms reduce the average expectation error over worker ability by roughly a third of the reduction made by incumbent firms. Thus outside firms retain sizeable expectation errors due to asymmetric information.
	Bibliography Citation Kahn, Lisa B. "Asymmetric Information between Employers." IZA Discussion Paper No. 7147, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), January 2013.

3.	Kahn, Lisa B.
3.	Asymmetric Information between Employers American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 5,4 (October 2013): 165-205. Also: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/app.5.4.165&fnd=s Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: American Economic Association Keyword(s): Firms; Learning, Asymmetric; Skills; Workers Ability Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. This study explores whether potential employers have the same information about worker ability as the incumbent firm. I develop a model of asymmetric learning that nests the symmetric learning case and allows the degree of asymmetry to vary. I then show how predictions in the model can be tested with compensation data. Using the NLSY, I test the model and find strong support for asymmetric information. My estimates imply that in one period, outside firms reduce the average expectation error over worker ability by only a third of the reduction made by incumbent firms.
	Bibliography Citation Kahn, Lisa B. "Asymmetric Information between Employers." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 5,4 (October 2013): 165-205.

4.	Kahn, Lisa B.
4.	Long-Term Labor Market Consequences of Graduating from College in a Bad Economy SSRN Working Paper, Social Science Research Network, September 12, 2006. Also: http://ssrn.com/abstract=702463 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); College Graduates; Human Capital; Labor Force Participation; Occupational Attainment; Occupational Prestige; Wage Effects Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. [First Draft: March, 2003]. This paper studies the labor market experiences of white male college graduates as a function of economic conditions at time of college graduation. I use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth whose respondents graduated college between 1979 and 1988 and are followed for 14 to 23 years after college graduation. I use both national and state variation in economic conditions at time of college graduation to identify the effect. Because timing and location of college graduation could potentially be affected by economic conditions, I also instrument for these variables using age and state of residence at age 14. I find large, negative wage effects to graduating in a worse economy which persist for the entire period studied. I find that cohorts who graduate in worse economies are in lower level occupations and this explains a portion of the wage effect. There is slightly higher propensity to attain a graduate or professional degree among those who graduated in worse economies, while labor supply is unaffected. I analyze several theories predicting long-run wage effects and find that both occupational attainment differences and disparities in task-specific human capital investment are consistent with the data.
	Bibliography Citation Kahn, Lisa B. "Long-Term Labor Market Consequences of Graduating from College in a Bad Economy." SSRN Working Paper, Social Science Research Network, September 12, 2006.

5.	Kahn, Lisa B.
5.	The Long-Term Labor Market Consequences of Graduating from College in a Bad Economy Working Paper, Yale School of Management, August 13, 2009. Also: http://mba.yale.edu/faculty/pdf/kahn_longtermlabor.pdf Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Yale School of Management Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); College Graduates; Economic Changes/Recession; Educational Attainment; Geocoded Data; Human Capital; Job Tenure; Labor Market Outcomes; Occupational Prestige; Occupational Status; Wage Effects Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. [First Draft: 2003]. Updated: August 13, 2009. This paper studies the labor market experiences of white male college graduates as a function of economic conditions at time of college graduation. I use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth whose respondents graduated from college between 1979 and 1989. I estimate the effects of both national and state economic conditions at time of college graduation on labor market outcomes for the first two decades of a career. Because timing and location of college graduation could potentially be affected by economic conditions, I also instrument for the college unemployment rate using year of birth (state of residence at an early age for the state analysis). I find large, negative wage effects to graduating in a worse economy which persist for the entire period studied. I also find that cohorts who graduate in worse national economies are in lower level occupations, have slightly higher tenure and higher educational attainment, while labor supply is unaffected. Taken as a whole, the results suggest that the labor market consequences of graduating from college in a bad economy are large, negative and persistent.
	Bibliography Citation Kahn, Lisa B. "The Long-Term Labor Market Consequences of Graduating from College in a Bad Economy." Working Paper, Yale School of Management, August 13, 2009.

6.	Kahn, Lisa B.
6.	The Long-Term Labor Market Consequences of Graduating From College in a Bad Economy Labour Economics 17,2 (April 2010): 303-316. Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537109001018 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Elsevier Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); College Graduates; Economics, Demographic; Educational Attainment; Geocoded Data; Labor Market Outcomes; Labor Supply; Occupational Prestige; Occupational Status; Racial Differences; Wage Effects This paper studies the labor market experiences of white-male college graduates as a function of economic conditions at time of college graduation. I use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth whose respondents graduated from college between 1979 and 1989. I estimate the effects of both national and state economic conditions at time of college graduation on labor market outcomes for the first two decades of a career. Because timing and location of college graduation could potentially be affected by economic conditions, I also instrument for the college unemployment rate using year of birth (state of residence at an early age for the state analysis). I find large, negative wage effects of graduating in a worse economy which persist for the entire period studied. I also find that cohorts who graduate in worse national economies are in lower-level occupations, have slightly higher tenure and higher educational attainment, while labor supply is unaffected. Taken as a whole, the results suggest that the labor market consequences of graduating from college in a bad economy are large, negative and persistent. [Copyright Elsevier]
	Bibliography Citation Kahn, Lisa B. "The Long-Term Labor Market Consequences of Graduating From College in a Bad Economy." Labour Economics 17,2 (April 2010): 303-316.

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