Polarization and Persistence in the Japanese Labor Market

Abstract

This study analyzes the persistence of regular and non-regular employment status in Japan for workers that change jobs. In particular, we investigate two hypotheses behind this persistence. The first is the dependence of the employment status in the current job on that in the previous job. The second is the dependence of the employment status in the current job on that in the initial job, which is called first job effects. While both types of dependence are empirically verified, the former is shown to be quantitatively more substantial. Therefore, the serially dependent structure of employment status matters critically to the segmentation of the labor market in Japan.