A THEORY OF ON-THE-JOB LEARNING

In this paper I assume that a junior worker learns on the job from sen ior workers. The worker's earnings are equal to his value of marginal product minus the tuition to his senior workers plus the teaching rewa rd from his junior workers. The slope of the experience-earnings profi le decreases with the employment growth rate. The earnings of an inexp erienced worker of an unusually large cohort tend to be higher than th e normal level. Finally, I show that my model generates an age-earning s profile which is increasing, concave in age, and declining near to r etirement.