"In this paper, the socioeconomic and individual characteristics that favor mobility are analyzed. The stochastic frontier technique is used as an instrument of analysis to measure the differences that arise between the potential wage and the one that should be obtained for an individual with particular socioeconomic characteristics given his/her investment in human capital. A data panel of young workers who have been working at least for seven consecutive years is used for this analysis. The data set comes from the European Community Household Panel for the period 1995-2001. The results show that Spanish and Italian women have the higher changing probability; this high probability has a negative effect on the potential wage because it increases the gap between the potential and the observed wage."

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