We study how coworker networks influence sectoral job-switching decisions, using German administrative data and causal identification strategies. A general equilibrium model shows that accounting for coworker networks raises the estimated welfare effect of COVID-induced productivity shocks.

Using a novel survey of U.S. workers and a calibrated sector-choice model, we show that coworkers shape industry mobility through two offsetting channels: better information about wages and greater perceived access to jobs in connected sectors.

Using U.S. patent records matched to employer histories for four million inventors, we show that co-inventor ties to peers at firms specialized in other fields steer inventors into those fields. A mass-layoff displacement IV provides causal identification.

This paper explores how lenders’ past experiences with house price changes impact the mortgage rates they set, driven by their expectations of future price trends.