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Paper #554

Title:
Temporary help agencies and workers' occupational mobility
Authors:
J. Ignacio García Pérez and Fernando Muñoz Bullón
Date:
May 2001
Abstract:
This paper focuses on the occupational mobility of temporary help agency workers by studying their job-to-job upgrading chances as opposed to those who have not been hired through these intermediaries. A screening approach to the role of those labor ‘brokers’ suggests that agency workers may expect greater chances of upgrading from one occupation to another. Results obtained with a sample of Spanish workers show that working through those intermediaries comparatively offers stronger prospects of occupational upgrading for workers of a medium qualification level. This basic result is reinforced when the existence of self-selection into this type of intermediated work is appropriately taken into account.
Keywords:
Temporary help agencies, screening, self-selection, switching models
JEL codes:
J24, J62, C34
Area of Research:
Labour, Public, Development and Health Economics
Published in:
Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, vol 65(2), pp. 163-180, 2005

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