The Role of Professional Networks and Firm Hierarchies for Individual Careers and Wage Inequality

这个项目的目的是从理论的角度调查专业网络和公司等级对个人工资动态、收入不平等和代际流动性的作用。现有的经验文献报告说，发达经济体的工资不平等日益加剧，主要表现为高技能和低技能工人之间的工资差距扩大(工资两极分化)。在这个项目中，我们旨在调查社交网络在劳动力市场上重要性的增加是否会导致工资不平等的加剧，以及代际工资收入的正相关性增加。与现有文献相比，我们项目的创新方面是对分层公司中工人的专业网络和职业道路的演变进行了统一处理。在项目的第一阶段，我们将开发一个劳动力市场的搜索和匹配模型，其中包括不同的技能组、经验积累和层级公司。在第二个阶段，职业关系网的演变将被内化，这反映了这样一个事实，即社会关系往往是在同一等级的同事之间建立的。考虑到社会关系在职业发展中的作用，在这个框架中，社会网络中出现的同质性可能会加剧高(低)技能员工到公司内较高(较低)等级职位的内生分类。该项目的一个关键目标是充分了解这些机制对个人职业前景和工资不平等的影响。最后，将探讨如果子女能够接触到父母的职业网络，工资的代际相关性如何被放大。虽然我们希望通过分析方法来描述层级企业中具有内生促进时间的均衡，但在项目的第二阶段，我们将依赖于具有内生网络的模型的(基于代理的)模拟。

The purpose of this project is to investigate, from a theoretical perspective, the role of professional networks and firm hierarchies for individual wage dynamics, income inequality and intergenerational mobility. Existing empirical literature reports growing wage inequality in developed economies, which largely takes the form of a widening wage gap between high and low skill workers (wage polarization). In this project we aim to investigate whether an increase in importance of social networks on the labor market can contribute to a rise in wage inequality and an increase in the positive correlation of wage income between generations. The innovative aspect of our project relative to the existing literature is a unified treatment of the evolution of professional networks and career paths of workers in hierarchical firms. In the first stage of the project we will develop a search and matching model of the labour market with heterogeneous skill groups, experience accumulation and hierarchical firms. In the second stage the evolution of professional networks will be endogenized capturing the fact that social ties are often established between coworkers on the same hierarchical level. Taking into account that social ties play a role in career development, the emerging homophily in the social network in this framework may intensify the endogenous sorting of high (low) skill workers to higher (lower) hierarchical positions within firms. A crucial goal of the project is to gain a sound understanding of the effect of these mechanisms on individual career prospects and wage inequality. Finally, it will be explored how the intergenerational correlation of wages is amplified if children have access to the professional network of their parents. Whereas we expect to provide characterizations of the equilibrium with endogenous promotion times in hierarchical firms by analytical means, we will rely on (agent-based) simulations of the models with endogenous networks in the second stage of the project.