Training Costs and Wage Differentials in the Theory of Job Competition

A labor market is considered that is characterized by job
competition over job ladders. Firms paying more for comparable jobs
can attract workers with better background characteristics (with
general human capital) and will lose fewer trained workers (with
general and firm-specific human capital). Optimizing behavior on
the side of the firms gives rise to a wage structure that shows
similar correlations between training and wages as would emerge in
a human capital framework, but for different reasons. Further, the
wage structure responds to other influences, like the degree of
labor mobility.