The RFBerlin Applied Economics Seminar series brings leading researchers to Berlin to share their latest work and engage with our community. We are pleased to welcome Isaac Sorkin (Stanford University) for this session.

Isaac Sorkin is an Associate Professor of Economics at Stanford University and a Trione Faculty Scholar. His research focuses on labor economics and macroeconomics, with particular emphasis on firm behavior, wage inequality, unemployment insurance, and labor market policy. His work has been published in journals including the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, and Review of Economic Studies, and he serves as an Associate Editor at the Journal of Political Economy.

Event Topic:

Paired Movers

Consider two workers who both move from firm A to firm B. In models where wages are determined separately by worker and firm characteristics, the pay gap between the two workers at the first firm should fully predict the gap at the second firm. Using data from Brazil and Italy, however, we find that this prediction does not hold, pointing to the importance of worker-firm match effects. Our estimates suggest that these match effects account for a substantial share of wage variation, potentially even more when workers move endogenously between firms. Using simulated data, we also show that common specification tests can be biased or lack statistical power, and that predicting earnings patterns for unobserved job offers can be misleading when match effects matter.

Event Details:

Date: 26 May 2026
Time: 14:00–15:15

Participation: the seminar is open to the public and targeted to an academic audience.

If you have any questions or need further information, feel free to contact us using the form or email us at [email protected]