LABOUR MARKET SEGMENTATION theory offers a useful framework for considering the pattern of worker participation in the construction industry.
Consequently, viewing construction labour market dynamics through the lens of labour market segmentation theory has the potential to reveal new insights into the industry and its practices.
Mitchell and McDade (1992) reconsider the
market segmentation theory by focusing on property and liability insurance companies and find strong evidence of market segmentation.
Also, the aggregation problems (that is, whether the aggregation should be done on the basis of similarity of elasticities, marginal responses, or response function coefficients) of normative
market segmentation theory (Tollefson and Lessig, 1978) are some of the factors that complicate the practical implications of market segmentation studies.
Contending that "the human capital perspective has not fared well," Dickens and Lang urge that labor
market segmentation theory be "taken seriously" by economists and argue that it deserves an important position in the economist's toolbox.
The authors note that their main purpose is the elaboration of the
market segmentation theory and its implications.
Conventional labor
market segmentation theory suggests that secondary segment workers may not be prevented from nonemployment mobility simply based on job tenure.