The acceptance of earnings losses after voluntary mobility

Abstract

Because rational individuals know that they cannot always get what they want, they are assumed to make appropriate adjustments. However, little is known about trade-off reasoning in labor market mobility decision making. The objective of this paper is to analyze the effect of job-specific amenities on the decision to voluntarily accept wage cuts. Application of German household data reveals that voluntarily mobile workers are more likely to accept lower wages when strain can be improved. In other words, the considered mobile workers trade off amenities and monetary rewards when changing employers.