Inter-firm labor mobility and knowledge diffusion: a theoretical approach

Abstract

We analyze an economy with two main features: labor mobility goes together with knowledge transfer and firm productivity increases with the exchange of ideas. Each firm develops some specific knowledge that will be transmitted to the rest of the industry through the mobility of workers. We study two labor market settings and use comparative statics to derive the implications of the model. They reveal how labor mobility depends on the variety and level of knowledge, the presence of mobility costs, the institutional environment, the absorptive capacity of the firms and the size of the industry. Results are robust to different labor market settings.exchange of knowledge, inter-firm labor mobility, knowledge diffusion