Mobility of human capital – the Nordic countries, 1988-1998

Abstract

The report gives detailed annual statistics of job-to-job mobility in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden for the period 1988-1998. Complete annual matched employee/employer datasets for the four countries make up the bulk of the data. In order to develop benchmarks for mobility and stylised facts concerning the influence of various background variables, the statistics are broken down over personal attributes such as gender, age, family status and education, and economic variables such as sector and firm size. The report deals thoroughly with the influence of the business cycle on mobility rates. These statistics are of interest because mobility between firms is a major diffusion mechanism for knowledge in the economy. In order to look at the flow of human capital rather than humans per se, education is chosen as an indicator for formal knowledge and age as an indicator for experience. Working with register data as here (as opposed to surveys with smaller samples) gives major advantages but also some challenges which are addressed. These first comprehensive detailed statistics of the flow of human capital in job-to-job mobility in the Nordic countries are the output of a Nordic project which is also dealing with researcher mobility in particular and with the flow of human capital between the Nordic countries through migration. The project is jointly undertaken by STEP, The Danish Institute for Studies in Research and Research Policy, Statistics Finland, Statistics Iceland, and Vinnova.