Mobility, Scarring and Job Quality in Indonesia’s Labor Market
This paper investigates the occupational mobility and job quality of young people in Indonesia and relates this to the concept of “scarring.” The concept of labor market scarring in this paper is the occurrence of low or zero returns to certain types of work (for example, self-employment). Scarring is expected to occur whenever an individual spends periods working in occupations in which their human capital is either stagnant or deteriorating. Fixed effects estimations using panel data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey reveal that a period in self-employment is associated with negative returns for youth (about 3 to 4 percent per year penalty), but not for older adults. In addition, there are clear patterns of persistence in self-employment over time with few individuals progressing from petty self-employment to businesses with permanent workers.
Summary: | This paper investigates the occupational
mobility and job quality of young people in Indonesia and
relates this to the concept of “scarring.” The concept of
labor market scarring in this paper is the occurrence of low
or zero returns to certain types of work (for example,
self-employment). Scarring is expected to occur whenever an
individual spends periods working in occupations in which
their human capital is either stagnant or deteriorating.
Fixed effects estimations using panel data from the
Indonesian Family Life Survey reveal that a period in
self-employment is associated with negative returns for
youth (about 3 to 4 percent per year penalty), but not for
older adults. In addition, there are clear patterns of
persistence in self-employment over time with few
individuals progressing from petty self-employment to
businesses with permanent workers. |
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