Was higher education a quasi-fixed factor for firms in the 1980s?

Abstract

The primary goal of this paper is to investigate whether firms incorporated educated workers as a quasi-fixed factor in production during the 1980s when non-wage costs became more crucial. If this scenario were true, firms would be more reluctant to lay off educated workers, which implies a relatively stable relationship of employment between educated workers and their employers. Empirically, I find that firms did not treat educated workers relatively like a quasi-fixed factor, since they adjusted the level of employment of educated workers in tandem with that of less educated workers. In other words, educated workers did not have a relatively more stable relationship with their employers. During the time period under study, the US labor market did not appear to be degree oriented.