TY  - JOUR
AU  - Andersson, Fredrik
AU  - Holzer, Harry J
AU  - Lane, Julia
TI  - Temporary Help Agencies and the Advancement Prospects of Low Earners
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13434
PY  - 2007
Y2  - September 2007
DO  - 10.3386/w13434
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13434
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13434.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Fredrik Andersson
Economics Department
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
250 E Street, SW
Washington, DC 20219
Tel: (202) 874-5089
Fax: (202) 874-5394
E-Mail: frdrkndrssn@gmail.com

Harry  J. Holzer
Georgetown Public Policy Institute
Old North 401 
Georgetown University 
37 and O St. NW 
Washington DC 20057
E-Mail: hjh4@georgetown.edu

Julia Lane
Wagner School of Public Service
New York University
295 Lafayette Street
New York, NY 10012-9604
E-Mail: julia.lane@nyu.edu
M1  - published as Fredrik Andersson, Harry J. Holzer, Julia Lane. "Temporary Help Agencies and the Advancement Prospects of Low Earners," in David H. Autor, editor, "Studies of Labor Market Intermediation " University of Chicago Press (2009)

M3  - presented at "Labor Market Intermediation Conf.", May 17-18, 2007
AB  - In this paper we use a very large matched database on firms and employees to analyze the use of temporary agencies by low earners, and to estimate the impact of temp employment on subsequent employment outcomes for these workers.  Our results show that, while temp workers have lower earnings than others while working at these agencies, their subsequent earnings are often higher - but only if they manage to gain stable work with other employers. Furthermore, the positive effects seem mostly to occur because those working for temp agencies subsequently gain access to higher-wage firms than do comparable low earners who do not work for temps. The positive effects we find seem to persist for up to six years beyond the period during which the temp employment occurred.
ER  -