Cohort Effects and Returns to Seniority in France

We examine empirically returns to seniority in France and estimate cohort effects in both firm specific compensation policies and returns to job seniority. We demonstrate the biases in several estimators of returns to seniority and show that allowing firm specific compensation policies and returns to seniority to vary by entry cohort uncovers patterns of variance within firm and within cohort in estimated intercepts and slopes that can be explained by no single theory.
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