Labor mobility across jobs and space

Sammanfattning: This thesis consists of one introductory chapter and four independent papers. Each paper looks at different aspects of labor mobility, especially focusing on the transferability of specific human capital and the role of space for job matching.The focus of the first paper is to examine how diversity of previous work experience of employees in creative industries matters for labor productivity. I further distinguish between related vs. unrelated occupation and industry experience to better understand how they matter for knowledge flows within a firm. The results show that diversity, and especially relatedness of previous occupational experience, are positively related to labor productivity.In the second paper, I study how co-location of knowledge-intensive business services influences the innovative capacity of the sector. The results suggest that co-location facilitates labor mobility and thereby knowledge flows as well as innovation capacity across firms.In the third and fourth papers, the focus shifts from the firm to the individual. The third paper examines how regional characteristics, especially Marshallian labor market pooling, influence the type of employment obtained after job displacement. The results show that regional industrial and occupational structures are crucial for facilitating job matches and occupational upgrades of individuals. The fourth paper examines whether there are wage returns to migration after job displacement, after the job match is considered. The results indicate that returns to migration are positive only when combined with a re-employment that matches the skills of the worker.