army1987 comments on On the concept of "talent-constrained" organizations - Less Wrong

14 Post author: VipulNaik 14 March 2014 04:42PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 16 March 2014 02:30:32PM 0 points [-]

Imagine that you are a talented person and you already have a decent job and make decent money. Would you change it for another job just because it offers you 10% more? I probably wouldn't, because you never know, the new job may actually suck, and returning to the old place may no longer be an option.

In other words, the labour market resembles an oligopsony much more than one would guess by looking at the total number of employers alone.

Comment author: Lumifer 16 March 2014 06:08:56PM 2 points [-]

I think it's a point about risk aversion, not about the structure of the labour market.

Comment author: Viliam_Bur 16 March 2014 08:20:00PM *  3 points [-]

I think there are multiple causes.

People are risk-averse. But even if they weren't, changes usually have transaction costs. For example if people have to move from one city to another, that costs something. Also it means that their partner could have to change their job to stay together.

If you want to make a lot of money, you have to specialize in something. That naturally reduces the number of potential employers. You can switch do doing something different, but again, there are transaction costs.

Comment author: Lumifer 16 March 2014 11:52:43PM 2 points [-]

All true. And, again, all of that doesn't have much to do with whether the labour market is an oligopsony.

Comment author: Viliam_Bur 18 March 2014 10:03:05AM *  1 point [-]

Seems to me that with enough specialization there are few buyers and few sellers. Which of these numbers is smaller probably depends on specific specialization, and may change over time.