Changing composition of human capital
 The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland¹

Abstract

We show that business education/occupations have expanded and that technical education/occupations have contracted in the Czech Republic and Poland since 1990. We interpret these changes as an adjustment necessary for their transition to a market economy. We do not find the same pattern in Hungary, which we attribute to the earlier timing of its transition. We construct an aggregate model in which labour reallocates in response to changing demand structure. When calibrated with the Czech and Polish data, the model generates a large movement of workers with technical education and experience into business occupations in the early 1990s. The discounted sum of output loss due to the gap between the demand structure and the composition of existing human capital amounts to between 8 and 40 percent of 1990 GDP. JEL classifications: J31, J62, P23, E13.occupations. We calibrate the model based on Czech and Polish data, and measure the discounted sum of output loss due to the imbalance in human capital. This amounts to between 8 and 40 percent of 1990 GDP.Our paper can be viewed as a study of mismatch between the existing worker characteristics and those that the market demands. A much-studied mismatch of this nature is the excessive qualification of workers for available jobs, that is, overeducation (see Alba-Ramirez, 1993 for example). Another is the insufficient capacity of workers to adopt new technology, that is, skill-biased technological change (see Acemoglu and Zilibotti, 2001 among others). These issues are more about the level mismatch than about the composition mismatch that we focus on. Our paper also relates to other studies of educational changes and labour mobility in transition economies. Sarychev (1999) studies the changes from specialized vocational training to general training during the early period of transition in East Germany. Sorm and Terrell (2000) find a significant movement of labour into the finance, trade and tourism sectors, and out of the agricultural and industrial sectors in the Czech Republic. Similarly, Sabirianova (2002) analyses the expansion of service and business occupations in Russia. Our paper highlights the changes from technical to business-related education/occupations. Also, we assess their quantitative significance based on an aggregate model.

The estimation of Mincer function in conditions of the Czech republic

“…Podobných výsledků dosáhli i další autoři Chase (1998) Další autoři se tímto tématem rovněž zabývají např. Jeong et al (2008), Matějů a Večerník (2015), nebo se nově zabývají problémem tzv. pay gap, která nemusí být důsledkem pouze stupně dosaženého vzdělání, ale i dalších aspektů např.…”

On the Industry Specificity of Human Capital and Business Cycles

“…We obtain virtually the same figure when we weight observations using the number of hours worked in the reference week. Jerbashian et al (2015) use data from Czech Labor Force Survey (2007Q2) and from Jeong et al (2008) Note: This figure offers country-averaged value of the share of specific human capital. Employment weighted average value displays similar negative trend and percentage change over time.…”

The effect of return migration driven social capital on SME internationalisation: a comparative case study of IT sector entrepreneurs in Central and Eastern Europe

“…The region however tends to possess relatively high human capital stocks measured on the basis of educational qualifications (Földvári and van Leeuwen 2005). Existence of a technically-based system of vocational education (Jeong et al 2008) is also currently reflected in development of a nascent IT-oriented sector (European Commission 2013). This illustrates potential for development of globally competitive firms which might be nurtured by return migrant entrepreneurship.…”