Impact of Heterogeneity in Task Environments on Individual Learning Curves

Learning by doing is one of the key mechanisms that influences capability development in firms. Recent research has shown that the manner in which individuals within organizations accumulate and learn from experience is a factor contributing to observed productivity differences across organizations. This paper makes a theoretical and an econometric contribution by (a) exploring whether individual learning is transferrable across work environments and (b) developing an econometric model that accounts for the fact that worker output and quality are simultaneously determined. Using this improved specification, we show that individual learning curves are significantly influenced by the context of work as well as the setting in which individual experience is acquired. We discuss implications for the understanding of learning curves and how these factors influence capability accumulation.