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α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
Individuals experience frequent occupational switches during their lifetime, and initial worker characteristics are predictive of future patterns of occupational switching. We construct a quantitative model of occupational choices with worker learning and occupation‐specific productivity shocks to match life cycle patterns of occupational transitions and quantify the value of occupational mobility and learning. For the average 18‐year‐old worker, the value of being able to switch occupations is about 67 months of the maximum wage he or she could earn in the model, and the value of a worker learning his or her type is about 32 months of this maximum wage.