Peer Groups and Employment Outcomes of Young Adults

描述（由申请人提供）：在就业结果的研究中，我们通常将结果与个人的个人属性联系起来，如教育、能力、种族和性别；我们很少考虑一个人在其中工作或社交的群体的属性或生产力。然而，团队成员和团队领导之间的互动可能会对个人的工作表现产生强大的影响，尤其是对一个刚加入劳动力队伍的年轻人来说。在这个研究项目中，我们将调查几个关于同龄人群体和群体领导者在决定年轻人就业结果中的作用的问题。同辈群体和上级对年轻人来说可能尤其重要，因为他们几乎没有工作经验，更容易向同事和上级寻求反馈、指导和非正式的在职培训。在工作表现方面也可能存在同伴压力和社会规范，新员工可能会从同事和导师那里了解这些社会规范。此外，早期的劳动力市场经验在职业道德的形成、职业道路的开始、晋升前景的设定和未来收入增长的决定方面可能特别重要。尽管我们可能相信群体很重要，但很难可靠地衡量群体效应，因为个体通常是自我选择进入群体，或者根据不可观察的特征被分配到群体中。在这个项目中，我们利用美国陆军随机分配新入伍的年轻人到他们的第一个工作单位来避免自我选择的问题。虽然陆军只是一个雇主，但它也是美国最大的雇主。我们将使用机密的陆军人事记录，其中包括2002年期间约7万名新入伍者的小组，以及到2005年为止每月200万人的观察。我们的数据包括某一单位的每一个士兵，以及军官人员。在我们的第一个具体目标中，我们将研究新入伍的年轻人的工作绩效与其最初分配单位的人口构成之间的因果关系，包括种族，性别，教育和能力构成。在我们的第二个目标中，我们将研究新入伍的年轻人的工作绩效与单位领导的种族，性别和级别组成之间的因果关系。在这两个目标中，工作表现都是通过晋升到专家和中士级别的时间来衡量的。在这项研究中，我们将研究同龄人群体的人口构成如何影响年轻人的就业结果。早期的劳动力市场经历可能会对年轻人的福祉产生强烈影响，也可能是未来收入增长的重要决定因素。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In studies of employment outcomes, we usually relate outcomes to an individual's personal attributes, like education, ability, race and gender; less often do we consider the attributes or the productivity of the group in which the person works or socializes. Yet interactions between group members and group leaders may have powerful effects on an individual's job performance, especially for a young adult who is new to the labor force. In this research program, we will investigate several questions about the role of peer groups and group leaders in determining the employment outcomes of young adults. Peer groups and superiors may be especially important for young adults, since they bring little in the way of prior workforce experience and may more readily turn to coworkers and superiors for feedback, guidance, and informal on-the-job training. There might also be peer pressure and social norms regarding work-related performance, and new employees may learn about these social norms from coworkers and mentors. Furthermore, early labor market experiences may be particularly important in the formation of a work ethic, initiation of a career path, setting of promotion prospects, and the determination of future earnings growth. Although we might believe groups matter, it is difficult to credibly measure group effects because individuals usually self-select into groups or are assigned to them on the basis of unobservable characteristics. In this project, we avoid the problem of self-selection by exploiting the random assignment of newly enlisted young adults by the U.S. Army to their first work units. Although the Army amounts to just a single employer, it is also the nation's largest employer. We will use confidential Army personnel records containing a panel of approximately 70,000 new enlistees during 2002, with 2 million person-month observations up to 2005. Our data include every enlisted individual in a given unit, as well as officer personnel. In our first specific aim, we will study the causal relationship between job performance of newly enlisted young adults and the demographic composition of their initial assigned unit, including racial, gender, educational and ability composition. In our second aim, we will study the causal relationship between the job performance of newly enlisted young adults and the race, gender, and rank composition of unit leadership. In both aims, job performance is measured by time to promotion to the levels of specialist and sergeant. In this research we will study how the demographic composition of peer groups affects the employment outcomes of young adults. Early market labor market experiences may have strong effects on the wellbeing of young adults, and may also be an important determinant of future earnings growth.