Cross-Sectoral Wage Spillovers Outside Specialty Roles
RCTClinical Trial
A central question in active labor market policy is whether short-term experience acquired in specialized temporary positions (such as research assistant roles) generates returns only within that specific niche sector or spills over to elevate earnings in broader non-specialized private sector jobs.
Picture this
Acquiring work habits in a temporary specialized role is like learning tactical discipline while training in competitive sports; the foundational discipline and workplace skills developed transfer directly when transitioning to work in completely different industries across the broader economy.
What the evidence says
While employment increases occurred across both RA and non-RA roles, the overall post-intervention daily wage gains were primarily driven by employment in non-RA positions rather than continued research assistant work.
- Who was studied
- N = 227 urban Malawian male job seekers tracked over an 8-month follow-up period in Lilongwe, Malawi.
- How
- Instrumental variables (IV) estimation decomposing post-intervention wage returns across research assistant (RA) positions versus non-RA positions.
What to do
Encourage job seekers participating in short-term specialized employment opportunities to apply for non-specialized private sector roles to capture cross-sectoral wage premiums.
From the source
"Although the point estimates are positive for both RA positions and non-RA positions, the large wage returns seem to be driven by employment in non-RA positions."
Employment Exposure: Employment and Wage Effects in Urban Malawi